Asia Pacific SWFs, public pension funds hold 25% of global AUM

Five regional funds feature in the top of 10 of a global 300 ranking for 2010, released by Towers Watson and Pensions & Investments. Japan's Government Pension Investment Fund takes top spot once again, with Korea's National Pension Fund and Japan's Local Government Officials retaining fourth and seventh place, respectively. The new entrants to the top 10 were Malaysia's Employee Provident Fund, which ranked ninth, and tenth-placed Singapore Central Provident Fund.

The five largest Asian funds are all government-sponsored and represent 60% of the top 10 funds' assets and 18% of total assets. Twenty-nine Asia Pacific entities feature in the research, including eight from Australia and New Zealand with combined assets of $1.1 trillion, nine from Japan with assets of $2 trillion, and 12 from Asia ex-Japan, with assets of $900 billion.

The world's largest 300 pension funds saw their assets grow by 11% in 2010 to a record high of $12.5 trillion and they now account for 47% of global pension fund assets. However, annualized growth of all funds over the past five years has fallen to just over 6%.

North America remains the largest holder of pension fund assets, with 39% of the global total, but Asia Pacific has overtaken Europe to claim second place, with 28% to 27%.

Naomi Denning, head of investment for Asia Pacific at Towers Watson, said: "Although funds around the globe generally experienced a growth in US dollar terms during 2010, funds and their ranking positions in the Asia-Pacific region further benefited from currency appreciation against the US dollar, particularly the Yen and Australian dollar."

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• Topics
• LPs
• National Pension Service (Korea)
• GIC Private
• Temasek Holdings
• CIC
• KIC
• California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS)
• California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS)