PREFACE


INTRODUCTION

The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) compiles a range of financial statistics from surveys conducted by the ABS and from information obtained from regulatory sources. The statistics are important inputs to Australia's national accounts, particularly the financial accounts.

The ABS introduced revised international standards for the national accounts in late 2009. The revised international standards were implemented into the Survey of Financial Information (SFI) in 2009 and are now being reflected in the associated publication Managed Funds, Australia (cat. no. 5655.0).

This paper:

• describes the main changes to the international standards;
• describes the impact on the presentation of statistics in Managed Funds, Australia;
• presents the revised formatted publication (pdf) tables and related spreadsheets; and
• provides a concordance between the current and revised time series identifiers.

The tables presented specify the finest level of detail that can be published. There may be some aggregation or suppression of this detail in the September quarter 2010 issue of Managed Funds (5655.0) following the application of confidentiality measures.


TIMING

The first issue of Managed Funds, Australia that will incorporate the updated standards and revised presentation will be the September quarter 2010 issue, scheduled for release on Friday, 3 December 2010.


SUMMARY COMMENTARY


CHANGES TO STANDARDS AND CLASSIFICATIONS

The latest revision of the international standards, System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA08), introduced incremental rather than radical change. Details of these updated standards are presented in the information paper, Implementation of new international statistical standards in ABS National and International Accounts (cat. no. 5310.0.55.002) which was released on 30 September 2009.

In the financial accounts the new standards reflect the changes that have occurred in the financial system during the past 10 to 15 years and ensure that statistics remain relevant for increasingly complex financial markets in a globalised economy. The changes introduce further dissections of existing categories in the classifications.

In the financial instrument classification, new classes have been introduced for the deposits and loans markets. In the institutional sector classification, new categories have been introduced to provide further dissection of the "Other financial institutions" category. These new dissections, which include private non-financial investment funds (e.g. property trusts), money market funds (e.g. cash management trusts), non-money market funds (e.g. unlisted equity trusts) and securitisers, each have their own sector tables in the Australian National Accounts, Financial Accounts (cat. no. 5232.0). Details on these changes are covered in Information Paper: Product changes to Financial Accounts following revisions to international standards (cat. no. 5232.0.55.003).


IMPACT ON DATA COLLECTION

There are five form types within the SFI which collect managed funds data. In addition to introducing new data requirements to reflect the revised standards, the forms incorporated other upgrades such as better layouts reflecting ABS form design requirements and the introduction of an electronic form. The extent of the changes varied depending on the form type within the SFI, as some form types had not been updated since the early 1990s while others have had more recent upgrades.

The changes to form types fit into four broad categories :

• new data items (mostly further dissections of existing items) as a result of SNA08 standards;
• deletion of existing data items which have been identified to be of a low priority;
• new layouts, to better reflect ABS standards in form design (e.g. adding include/exclude directions against items); and
• the introduction of reporting via an electronic form.

In addition, when the revised form types were introduced the frame for SFI was updated, improving the coverage of the statistics.

The introduction of revised form types has resulted in revisions to data, due to new SNA08 data requirements, but also as a result of data quality improvements arising from providers gaining a greater understanding of form requirements due to the improved form layout and instructions. Generally speaking, the older form types have resulted in more revisions due to data quality improvements.


BACKACASTING

New SNA08 requirements, data quality improvements and improved coverage resulted in a shift in the level of some series. To maintain the integrity of time series, these level shifts have been backcast through the historical series to create a time series which is as continuous as possible. The length of backcasting varies for individual series, but historical series will commence from the same start dates as currently published.


PRODUCT CHANGES

In addition to changes needed to reflect SNA08, there are a number of other product changes being implemented from the September quarter 2010 issue to improve the structure, layout and usability of the Managed Funds, Australia publication.

Additional measure of managed funds

Two measures of managed funds will be presented - the consolidated position of managed funds institutions and total funds under management by the managed funds industry. The latter is a new measure, which has been included in the last three issues of Year Book Australia (cat. no.1301.0). It is derived by:

The consolidated position of Australian managed funds institutions;

plus funds managed by Australian investment managers on behalf of Australian entities other than managed funds institutions;

plus funds managed by Australian investment managers on behalf of overseas investors; and

minus any cross investment between Australian investment managers.

Superannuation fund assets held and administered by life insurance offices

These assets are currently excluded from the unconsolidated view of superannuation funds (current Table 3), but will be included from the September quarter 2010 issue. This does not affect the total consolidated position of managed funds institutions and provides greater comparability with superannuation data released by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).

Asset and liability data for managed funds institutions

All of the unconsolidated tables for individual managed funds institution types will have a detailed dissaggregation of assets (including the cross investment within institution type) and total instrument liability data. In addition, selected operational data will be included for new Tables 5, 7 and 8.

Analysis of managed funds

The analysis section of the managed funds publication will be improved by the inclusion of more descriptive tables, graphics and diagrams providing a more relevant analysis of the issues relating to funds management.

Time series data

The current managed funds release has 19 time series tables, 10 of which provide detailed lower level data, which over time has increasingly been subject to confidentialisation. In order to maximise the usability of the tables the level of detail presented has been reviewed. As a result, the individual time series spreadsheets for the six different types of public unit trust (current tables 9-16) will be replaced with one table which incorporates an "of which" breakdown of the total assets figure by type of trust.

Changes to specific tables

• Table 1. Summary of managed funds industry. This is a new table providing an additional (wider) measure of the managed funds industry which includes the consolidated position of the managed funds institutions plus funds under management of investment managers on behalf of clients other than managed funds institutions, less any cross investment between investment managers.
• Table 2. Summary of managed funds institutions. This table is a reworking of the current Table 1. The main changes are:
  • The consolidated asset view by type of institution has been replaced by an unconsolidated asset view by type of institution which allows for analysis of each type of institution; and
  • the cross invested assets by type of institution data have been provided in a time series format.
• Table 3. Life insurance offices, unconsolidated assets and liabilities. The main changes are:
  • A more detailed disaggregation of asset holdings by instrument/counterparty, in line with new international reporting standards. In particular there is greater detail for short and long term debt securities, loans and shares and units in trusts;
  • an identification of cross investment assets with other life insurance offices; and
  • the inclusion of limited liability data to provide insight into how growth is being funded.
• Table 4. Superannuation (pension) funds, unconsolidated assets and liabilities. The main changes are:
  • The inclusion of superannuation funds which are invested and administered by life insurance offices. These amounts will be separately identified as "Net equity of pension funds in life office reserves";
  • a more detailed disaggregation of asset holdings by instrument/counterparty, in line with new international reporting standards. In particular there is greater detail for short and long term debt securities, loans and shares and units in trusts; and
  • the inclusion of limited liability data to provide insight into how growth is being funded.
• Table 5. Public offer (retail) unit trusts, unconsolidated assets and liabilities. The main changes are:
  • The title has been altered to better reflect the institution type;
  • a more detailed disaggregation of asset holdings by instrument/counterparty, in line with new international reporting standards. In particular there is greater detail for short and long term debt securities, loans and shares and units in trusts;
  • the inclusion of liability data in both the publication and time series tables;
  • only the time series tables will only include separate trust data for the operations of the unlisted trusts; and
  • The asset tables by individual trust type (Table 9-16) are being discontinued to decrease the amount of cells being confidentialised.
• Table 6. Friendly societies, unconsolidated assets and liabilities. The main changes are:
  • A more detailed disaggregation of asset holdings by instrument/counterparty, in line with new international reporting standards. In particular there is greater detail for short and long term debt securities, loans and shares and units in trusts; and
  • the inclusion of liability data in both the publication and time series tables.
• Table 7. Common funds, unconsolidated assets and liabilities. The main changes are:
  • A more detailed disaggregation of asset holdings by instrument/counterparty, in line with new international reporting standards. In particular there is greater detail for short and long term debt securities, loans and shares and units in trusts; and
  • the inclusion of liability data in both the publication and time series tables.
• Table 8. Cash management trusts, unconsolidated assets and liabilities. The main changes are:
  • A more detailed disaggregation of asset holdings by instrument/counterparty, in line with new international reporting standards. In particular there is greater detail for short and long term debt securities, loans and shares and units in trusts; and
  • the inclusion of liability data in both the publication and time series tables.
• Table 9. Investment managers, source of funds. The main change is:
  • New sources of funds identified in the "Total other sources" category, to better reflect the primary sources of funds.

PUBLICATION TABLES AND TIME SERIES SPREADSHEETS

Available from the Downloads tab of this publication are:

• an Adobe pdf file that includes a preview of tables that will be published in Managed Funds, Australia, September quarter 2010 on Friday 3 December 2010; and
• previews of the set of time series spreadsheets that will also be published in Managed Funds, Australia, September quarter 2010.

TIME SERIES IDENTIFIERS

The changes described above will result in new time series identifiers for all series. The new time series identifiers will be available from the Downloads tab of this paper on 4 November 2010.