APRA fund administrator – Senior Manager – Regulatory reporting

Ashleigh Bhatti

‘Dealing with government and helping my clients (funds) meet their reporting obligations is easy due to streamlined processes and digital engagement.’

Life is very different as an APRA fund administrator than it was 10 years ago. The team’s roles used to involve lots of manual processing, but now we have more time to focus on managing relationships with our clients, and providing advice to members.

These days, all our interactions with government are electronic – no more paper. We also access all the information we need in one place to manage our administrative processes to help our clients meet their reporting obligations. Everything is automated, from registration, to fund choice, and processing payment contributions.

The other day for instance, my team had to process a batch of rollovers across the funds we administer. Previously, my team used to log into the administration side of each fund and process each group of rollovers one by one. Now we can log in once, access all the funds we’re authorised to manage so we can process all rollover transactions in one hit. To put that in perspective, this saves my team a lot of manual processing, so now we have more time to look after our relationships with the funds and their members.

Part of my responsibility is to work closely with the ATO, as they keep me involved in changes to the super system.

Recently, there was a law change being discussed that would have impacts on the administrative processes we follow to help our clients meet their regulatory reporting obligations.

The ATO approached me to help provide practical insights into how we work. I was actively involved in the design process and could influence how the proposed changes could be implemented into the super system.

Throughout the process, I was able to provide input information on how the new change could work in practice, including providing input from fund trustees. Together with the trustees, administrators and government representatives, we were able to update our systems to ensure our reporting and administrative obligations were streamlined, making my firm’s operations even more efficient and cost effective.

I was glad to see that they were building on existing systems and previous changes, so we didn’t have to redesign anything from scratch.

What the ATO does

• We work with software developers to deliver streamlined reporting and functionality for APRA administrators.
• Our secure systems are easily accessible to Ashleigh and her team to ensure they can access the APRA regulated funds they are responsible for administering, eg log in once and manage all authorised funds.
• We engage with Ashleigh and other APRA administrators through consultative forums and professional associations. We also provide other channels for feedback.
• We work across government, eg Treasury, APRA and ASIC in order to represent one view.
• We connect with Ashleigh and her industry colleagues via consultative forums, valuing their contributions and practical insights when implementing changes to the system.

How the ATO behaves

• We have a service focus.
• We have and foster the right relationships.
• We collaborate across the ATO and government to understand clients' circumstances and offer a fair and differentiated service.
• We willingly share information, insights and experience and proactively raise issues to provide information to clients and stakeholders.
• We continuously simplify and improve the way we do things.