Goldies, CBA super funds outshine rivals The discrepancy in the performance between retail and industry funds is likely to intensify the public debate. Bankers have put their financial skills to good use when it comes to saving for their retirement, producing the top two performing superannuation funds over the past decade. The Goldman Sachs & JBWere and Commonwealth Bank staff super schemes outshone the rest of the super universe in the 10 years to June 2013, returning on average 10.5 per cent and 8.1 per cent respectively each year, figures from the prudential regulator show. The next best performing funds were Unisuper, an industry fund that caters to employees in the tertiary education sector and the Worlsey corporate scheme, which both added 8 per cent annually over the past decade. Overall, industry, corporate and public sector funds dominated the top of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority league table, which is controversial because it takes into account the whole of a super fund's performance, rather than comparing individual investment options. As a result, super funds with a high proportion of older members, whose savings are invested in cash and other defensive asset classes, are likely to show relatively poor returns. The APRA figures show a wide disparity in performance of the biggest funds. The largest scheme, the $66 billion AustralianSuper fund, posted a 7.2 per cent annual return over 10 years. Fellow industry funds, HESTA and REST, also fared well. REST, which caters to employees in the retail industry with $28 billion under management, returned 7.3 per annually, while HESTA, which specialises in health sector staffers, gained 7 per cent a year on average. By contrast, the biggest retail funds - AMP, Colonial First State FirstChoice, and OnePath, which is owned by ANZ Banking Group - all recorded annual returns of less than 5 per cent. MLC's Universal Super Scheme added 5.4 per cent a year. Despite the controversy over the nature of the figures, the discrepancy in the performance between retail and industry funds is likely to intensify the public debate about fund governance. Industry funds argue that their sound investment performance shows that their board structure is optimal, while critics say they should appoint more independent directors.