Australia has taken out second place in the country rankings in the 2024 Global Pension Transparency Benchmark (GPTB), moving up from fourth four years ago, when the benchmark was launched.
Australia scored an average of 82 in 2024, up from 74 in the previous year where it ranked third.
This year Australia ranked third in transparency of cost disclosures, second in governance, third in performance, and sixth in responsible investment.
For the fourth year Canada ranked first among the countries reviewed, with all five Canadian funds finishing within the top 11 funds globally.
The GPTB, a collaboration between Investment Magazine sister publication Top1000funds.com and CEM Benchmarking measures the transparency of disclosures for the largest five funds in 15 countries across the factors of cost, governance, performance and responsible investment in a bid to improve the industry’s transparency of disclosures. It asks binary questions: does a fund disclose something, or not, measuring the completeness of the disclosure, not necessarily the quality.
Each of the five Australian funds improved their scores in the 2024 edition of the GPTB.
| Individual Global Pension Transparency Benchmark Australian fund rankings | |||
| 2024 | 2023 | ||
| Rank | Fund (score) | Rank | Fund (score) |
| =7 | Australian Retirement Trust (89) | =14 | Australian Retirement Trust (74) |
| =7 | AustralianSuper (89) | 3 | AustralianSuper (87) |
| =16 | UniSuper (83) | 22 | UniSuper (71) |
| =20 | Aware Super (78) | =12 | Aware Super (77) |
| 29 | Future Fund (71) | =32 | Future Fund (66) |
| Source: Top1000funds.com/CEM Benchmarking 2024 Global Pension Transparency Benchmark | |||
This year the top 10 funds globally were particularly competitive, with an average improved score of 10 points. So, while AustralianSuper scored two points higher this year than it did in 2023, it was leapfrogged by some other funds with greater improvements.
Measurable improvements
The fourth edition of the GPTB again reveals that increased scrutiny on public disclosures is driving measurable improvements. Last year, 77 per cent of the reviewed organisations improved their total transparency scores. This year 69 per cent of funds scored higher.
In 2024, the average fund scored 63 out of 100, versus 60 last year, and 55 in the year prior. Notably the funds at the top of the rankings continue to improve the most. This year 19 funds scored over 80, compared to nine last year, and six scored over 90. Further, nine of the top 10 most transparent funds scored the same or higher than the most transparent fund last year.
“For leading funds, the GPTB methodology has become a roadmap for improving transparency. These funds have addressed the gaps in their score,” says Edsart Heuberger, CEM Benchmarking’s product lead for transparency benchmarking.
Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, Government Pension Fund Global, topped the list of the most transparent funds, scoring a perfect 100.
In the four years the GPTB has been measuring transparency of global funds, the Government Pension Fund Global has improved its score by 27 points from 73 in 2020 to 100 in 2024 driven by a clear focus on transparency by the executive leadership. [See Why transparency is a strategic initiative for Norway’s SWF.]
Like last year, CPP Investments was ranked second, only narrowly beaten by Government Pension Fund Global. CPP Investments, which topped the benchmark in the first and second editions, improved its score from 88 to 96 in the past year.
CalPERS was in third spot this year, jumping up from fourth in 2023 and displacing AustralianSuper which slipped to equal seventh.
The fourth edition of the Global Pension Transparency Benchmark again reveals that increased scrutiny on public disclosures is driving measurable improvements. Last year, 77 per cent of the reviewed organisations improved their total transparency scores. This year more than two-thirds did (69 per cent). In 2024, the average fund scored 63 out of 100, versus 60 last year, and 55 in the year prior.
