Voluntary member superannuation contributions into retail funds fell during the third quarter of this financial year, while industry funds experienced a slight dip, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's (APRA) superannuation statistics have shown.
Voluntary member superannuation contributions into retail funds totalled $2.1 billion in December 2009, however by March 2010 this figure had dropped to $1.8 billion, representing a decrease of nearly $300 million.
Meanwhile, voluntary member superannuation contributions into industry funds stood at $592 million in December 2009, falling $87 million over the quarter to $505 million in March 2010.
APRA's quarterly superannuation statistics indicated that voluntary member contributions accounted for 18.1 per cent of total contributions, amounting to $3.2 billion in March 2010.
While $1.8 billion of voluntary contributions sat in retail funds, $754 million was directed into public sector funds, $505 million into industry funds and $82 million into corporate funds.
The statistics showed the total estimated superannuation assets grew over the quarter by $31.8 billion, or 2.6 per cent, to a total of $1.26 trillion.
Over the March quarter, the assets of industry funds grew by 3.6 per cent ($7.8 billion) to $226.6 billion, public sector funds by 2.7 per cent ($4.7 billion) to $177.4 billion, corporate funds by 1.7 per cent ($1 billion) to $60.9 billion and retail funds by 1.6 per cent ($5.5 billion) to $351.2 billion.
