Towers Watson senior investment consultant Martin Goss said there was a 14 per cent fall in the Australian dollar relative to the US dollar, which contributed to Australian funds dropping in the 2013 Pensions & Investments/Towers Watson Global 300 research.
“Only AustralianSuper and UniSuper moved up the rankings, by seven and two places respectively,” said Mr Goss.
Australia did, however, see one new fund enter the 300 largest pension funds, with Hostplus taking the 290th spot and bringing the total number of Australian funds on the list to 16.
The Future Fund maintained the highest rank among the Australian super funds on the list, placing 31st with US$86 billion in total assets for 2013.
AustralianSuper was the second largest Australian fund at number 47 and with US$65 billion in total assets.
This was followed by QSuper in the 86th spot, with US$43 billion in total assets.
The largest fund globally in terms of total assets was the Japan-based Government Pension Investment Fund, with a total of US$1.2 trillion in assets under management in 2013.
Overall total assets for the world’s largest 300 pension funds grew by over 6 per cent in 2013, compared to 10 per cent in 2012, up to a new record of almost US$15 trillion.
The research indicated that the US remains the nation with the largest proportion of fund assets, with a 36 per cent share.
Japan had the second largest share at 13 per cent, according to the research.
In terms of five-year combined compound growth, Latin America and African funds ranked highest with a 16 per cent growth rate, compared to Europe at 12 per cent, North America at around 6 per cent and the Asia Pacific at around 5 per cent.
Mr Goss said the continuing growth of most pension markets is genuinely encouraging, despite the fact that many structural issues remain.
“During 2013 we dared to believe that a number of positive developments presaged the end of the global financial crisis, and as it turned out the global economic recovery has continued to gain momentum into 2014,” said Mr Goss.
“It is noteworthy that the 13 major pensions markets are now more than double the size they were 10 years ago and pension assets now amount to around 78 per cent of global GDP, substantially higher than the 61 per cent recorded in 2008.”
