Industry Super Australia (ISA) has revealed what it received in funding from its member superannuation funds last financial year.

According to evidence it has provided to the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, ISA received $21.7 million for the year ending June, 2017 in the form of scaled contributions from 16 member funds based on fund size.

Those revenues compare with $13 million for industry umbrella group  the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia and $9 million for the Financial Services Council, which represents the bank-owned funds. ASFA represents both industry and retail funds while FSC represents just retail funds.

The income figures for the three organisations are not comparable. ISA’s income includes marketing and advertising costs for its member funds which are widely believed to total more than half its overall income.

The FSC does not undertake advertising for its members while neither does ASFA. ASFA earns significant money from its education program and provides research around superannuation. 

ISA said contributions from member funds were “for the express purpose of undertaking collective projects on behalf of these funds with the objective of maximising the retirement savings of their five million members”.

“In coordinating and executing these outputs for ISA member funds, economies of scale are realised yielding significant savings compared to each undertaking these activities individually,” the ISA answer said.

“ISA expenditure on specific consumer advertising sought by members of the committee and specific performance metrics related to their success are understandably commercial in confidence,” it said but added that “all of ISA’s member funds disclose to APRA their investment, operational and administrative expenses on a quarterly basis”.

ISA did not detail its advertising costs, saying they were “commercial-in-confidence”.