Australian pension funds are sitting on a A$245 billion ($167.38 billion) ‘wall of money’ that will probably flow overseas because of a lack of domestic options, asset managers say.

Thanks to Australian laws requiring employers to contribute at least 9% of a worker’s salary to a pension, superannuation funds, as they are known locally, are the world’s third-largest pool of pension assets, worth about $1.9 trillion.

The Australian stock market is worth only $1 trillion. The nearly 2:1 ratio is the highest among major developed economies, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML) , and the imbalance is growing – as is the range of overseas markets and assets attracting those funds.

“We have the world’s tenth-biggest stock market but the third-biggest pension fund pool,” said Mark Warburton, BAML head of Australian equity capital markets.

“There is a wall of money waiting to be invested.” The Australian Bureau of Statistics puts the number at about A$245 billion. Some of that money has stayed in Australia, such as the A$2.1 billion purchase in March education group Navitas by AustralianSuper, the country’s largest pension fund, and private equity group BGH Capital.

But asset managers told Reuters the cash imbalance was putting pressure on Australian funds to find infrastructure, property, private equity and listed companies offshore.

Last month, AustralianSuper agreed to put up to $1 billion into India’sNational Investment & Infrastructure Fund Ltd (NIIF), and has accumulated major stakes in listed companies such as drinks maker Diageo and consumer company Reckitt Benckiser.

Superannuation fund-owned IFM Investors, one of the country’s largest infrastructure investors, also told Reuters it was expanding its listed equities business outside Australia.

“The scale is just enormous,” National Australia Bank head of markets Drew Bradford said of the potential overseas investments.

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