The market value of assets held by Canadian trusteed pension funds rose four per cent to $2.14 trillion at the end of the second quarter of 2021, up from $2.1 trillion in the first quarter, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Public sector assets increased by $63.5 billion, accounting for 77.4 per cent of the overall assets, while private sector assets were up $18.5 billion. Revenues rose 13.1 per cent to $71.9 billion, with 64.9 per cent of the increase from other receipts and gains and 20.7 per cent from net realized gains. Expenditures dropped by 6.7 per cent to $28.3 billion due to a decrease in other disbursements and losses.
Read: Trusteed pension funds’ assets valued at $2.1T in Q1: StatsCan
The two largest asset classes — bonds and equities — accounted for 55.8 per cent of the increase, with bonds rising 5.2 per cent and equities up two per cent. Canadian bonds increased 4.8 per cent, while Canadian equities fell 2.1 per cent. Domestic assets rose 2.5 per cent in the second quarter of 2021, while foreign assets increased 3.9 per cent.
While the value of these assets was assessed at $2.22 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020, the report noted the current data is based on the results of the largest 250 trusteed pension plans, while previous reports were based on results of the largest 150 plans. The latest report also omitted data from the biennial census of trusteed pension plans. Because of these changes, data for 2021 isn’t compared with those of previous quarters. The first year-over-year comparison will be provided with the release for the first quarter of 2022.