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EXPLANATORY NOTES
8 Investment managers are generally subsidiaries of life insurance offices, banks, merchant banks, or organisations related to these types of institutions. They can be either separately constituted legal entities or form a segment of a particular financial institution. ASSETS, VALUATION AND TIME SERIES COMPARISONS 9 The data tabulated in this publication are the stocks of assets held by the various types of institutions, classified by type of asset. The classification of assets in this publication follows that which is contained in the ABS publication Australian National Accounts: Finance and Wealth (cat. no. 5232.0). Definitions of the various types of financial instruments are given in the glossary on the ABS website. 10 Providers of managed funds statistics are requested to report assets at their market value. 11 Movements between periods in the levels of assets of managed funds institutions reflect three key components: transactions in particular assets, valuation changes arising from price changes in the assets, and occasionally reclassifications between institution types. SUPERANNUATION (PENSION) FUNDS 12 From June quarter 1995 until the December quarter 2004, the ABS conducted a quarterly "Survey of Superannuation Funds". This survey was used by APRA to compile "Superannuation Trends" and by the ABS to compile superannuation fund data in Managed Funds, Australia (cat. no. 5655.0). 13 Prior to December 2004, the ABS estimated asset detail for some superannuation funds using quarterly information from funds with total assets over $60m. From December 2004, the type of assets held by superannuation funds has been refined by the introduction of a range of compilation methods, depending on the size of the superannuation fund. Where possible, quarterly asset details provided by the superannuation fund itself is the basis of the compilation; otherwise, its annual asset detail is the basis of the compilation. 14 From December quarter 2004, this data source was replaced by a new quarterly data collection conducted by APRA for superannuation funds with assets greater than $50m, supplemented by estimates for other APRA regulated funds and estimates of self-managed funds regulated by the ATO. 15 In July 2013, APRA introduced new reporting standards for the superannuation industry with the aim of meeting APRA's regulatory requirements with a view to supporting the implementation of the Stronger Super reforms. Data items available from the new APRA collections significantly deviated from the previous ones both in concept and definition. Where possible the impact of changes was quantified through a quality assurance process coordinated by APRA, and this was incorporated into the editing process. For series where it was not possible to quantify the impact, ABS cautiously chose indicators derived from other ABS collections that demonstrated a very strong historical correlation to these series. 16 Reporting standards to meet specific ABS' statistical requirements were developed through industry consultation in 2015. The updated requirements are focussed around two international standards; the System of National Accounts (SNA) and the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM) and are designed to reflect the detailed counterparty and asset class information inherent to these standards. 17 A new quarterly data collection conducted by APRA for superannuation funds with assets greater than $200m, which incorporated the ABS' statistical requirements, was introduced from September quarter 2016. Data was collected in parallel with the exiting estimates for a period of four quarters to enable the collection of sufficient information to revise historical estimates. The Superannuation statistics contained in this publication, including the revised time series, are presented on a basis consistent with the concepts and definitions in the new reporting standards from the September 2017 release. This data also continues to incorporate supplementary estimates of self-managed funds regulated by the ATO. Details of the revisions applied in the September 2017 release of this publication are provided in the Information paper: Changes to Managed Funds to incorporate data from updated Superannuation funds reporting standards, 2017 (cat. no. 5655.0.55.004). METHOD OF CONSOLIDATION 18 Estimates of the consolidated assets of managed funds are derived by eliminating any cross-investment that takes place between the various types of institutions. For example, investments by superannuation funds in public unit trusts are excluded from the assets of superannuation funds in a consolidated presentation. However it is not possible to apportion cross-investment at the level of detail presented in the unconsolidated tables. EFFECTS OF ROUNDING 19 Where figures have been rounded, discrepancies may occur between sums of the component items and totals. Published changes in dollar value and percentage terms are calculated using unrounded data and may differ slightly from, but are more accurate than, changes calculated from the rounded data presented in this publication. RELATED MATERIAL 20 Time series electronic spreadsheets for the tables in this publication are available free on the ABS website from the "Downloads" tab of this Issue. 21 Users may wish to refer to other related materials available on the ABS website, under "Statistics", then "Finance". 22 Users of statistics relating to the managed funds industry in Australia may also be interested in the following ABS releases:
23 Users may also wish to refer to the APRA website, for Life Insurance and Friendly Societies and APRA-regulated superannuation funds, and the ATO website page for ATO-regulated Self-managed superannuation funds. Document Selection These documents will be presented in a new window.
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