Three Australian-owned banks managed almost half of all money in New Zealand’s KiwiSaver schemes as at March 31 this year.

Analysis of the annual reports of 41 schemes shows the three Aussie banks, ANZ, Westpac and the Commonwealth Bank-owned ASB, collectively managed just over NZ$2.7 billion of the total NZ$5.8 billion in KiwiSaver at the end of March 2010.

The ANZ-owned OnePath topped the list with about $1.2 billion across its four KiwiSaver brands closely followed by ASB, which held just over NZ$1 billion in its two KiwiSaver schemes at March 31 this year. Westpac reported NZ$491 million in its KiwiSaver scheme at the same time.

The National Australia Bank is the only major Australian bank with no direct stake in the KiwiSaver market despite owning the Bank of New Zealand (BNZ). Instead, the BNZ distributes both the AMP and AXA KiwiSaver schemes through its network.

A copy of the research, which offers the only comprehensive view of the KiwiSaver market (with the exception of corporate-only schemes), is available here .

See this month’s Investment Magazine for further analysis of the KiwiSaver research.