He said the issue was made more difficult for funds when they had to compete with the high-paying industry for talent.

Keith Ambachtsheer, director of the Rotman Centre for Pension Management at the University of Toronto, said scale mattered. There was a fair body of research which showed that large funds outperformed smaller ones by 30-40bps.

Ambachtsheer said he had spoken to Australia’s Jeremy Cooper on the subject and noted his conclusions in the review of the Australian super system that costs needed to be reduced and funds needed to amalgamate.