The government’s scheme allowing individuals affected by COVID-19 to access up to $10,000 of their superannuation kicks in next week, and more than 800,000 people have already flagged their intention to tap into their retirement savings.

As one of Australia’s largest retail super funds, financial services giant AMP has the responsibility for managing more than $80 billion in superannuation savings and is forecasting roughly 1% of their asset base will be withdrawn.

“We are here for our clients who want to access their super early,” AMP CEO Francesco De Ferrari tells Scott Haywood.

“We’re also committing to hold to the government’s timeline of getting their money to them in five days and we’ve been preparing our fund for that,”

Liquidity has become an issue for some super funds, particularly large industry super funds whose investments include a higher mix of unlisted and illiquid assets.

Francesco De Ferarri says this is not an issue for AMP.

“Most of our funds have a 20% limit for illiquid assets so we tend to be generically liquid across our funds,

“We also have a very diversified set of members and so that reduces the concentration risk of our member base,” De Ferarri said.

Click PLAY to hear the full interview between AMP CEO Francesco De Ferarri and Scott Haywood: