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Superannuation Industry Stewardship Group key messages 29 March 2021

Information about the key topics discussed at the Superannuation Industry Stewardship Group meeting 29 March 2021.

Last updated 19 April 2021

Welcome and introduction

David Knox, Senior Partner, Mercer, opened the meeting with welcome to country, welcomed members, including new member Lynn Kelly, Treasury, and noted apologies.

Your Future, Your Super

Regulators provided the following update.

The bill was introduced into Parliament on 17 February 2021; on 18 February it was referred to a Senate Economics Committee. The committee is due to report on 22 April.

The ATO, Treasury, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and Australian Securities Investment Commission (ASIC) are working on the development of a YourSuper comparison tool which is effectively a consumer tool.

The ATO and Treasury are gathering feedback about the Employer stapling service to understand how the service will work for employers.

APRA is working closely with the ATO on the data that will need to be transferred from APRA to the ATO to populate the YourSuper comparison tool.

APRA has been supporting Treasury on the underperformance and best financial duty measures.

ASIC is primarily responding to queries and issues Treasury has had.

Superannuation environment and overview

Treasury update.

Treasury Laws Amendment (Reuniting More Superannuation) Bill 2020 received Royal Assent on 22 March 2021.

Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response No.2) Bill 2020 received Royal Assent on 2 March 2021.

Financial Sector Reform (Hayne Royal Commission Response) Bill 2020, which includes anti hawking provisions, received Royal Assent on 17 December 2020.

Treasury Laws Amendment (2020 Measures No 4) Bill 2020 encompasses the wind up of Superannuation Complaints Tribunal – Legislation still in parliament.

Treasury Laws Amendment (Self-Managed Superannuation Funds) Bill 2020 increases the maximum number of allowable members in Self-Managed Superannuation Funds (SMSFs) and small APRA Funds from four to six – legislation is before the Senate.

Treasury Laws Amendment (More Flexible Superannuation) Bill 2020 encompasses bring forward non-concessional contributions cap – Legislation is before the Senate.

APRA update

Super data transformation – final response paper was released in the week of 22 March; first data collection will be September 2021.

APRA connect – APRA is running a pilot of the new collection system with a small number of entities and will then open up after initial pilot. The first collection in September under the super data transformation includes data needed for Your Future, Your Super around the choice products.

Supervisory work around member outcomes – when the MySuper heatmaps were released in December 2020, notices were issued to eight trustees of 10 MySuper products asking for more information about their performance. APRA’s follow-up supervision of these entities is ongoing

ASIC update:

Submissions have closed for Access to Affordable Advice, and round tables will commence in April 2021.

Remediation consultation is now closed.

The final version of the claims handling information sheet will be available by end of April 2021. It is primarily directed to insurers but also includes messages for trustees regarding their role in the claims handling process.

In the week 22 March 2021, ASIC issued instruments in relation to consent for trustee deductions for superannuation advice.

Consultation coming up is anti-hawking guidance and retirement calculators and projections.

ATO update:

SuperStream Rollover v3 project – From end of March until end of September 2021, the project is in the implementation phase and onboarding funds and SMSF providers. The project will conduct extensive engagement and communication. Support and guidance make the transition as seamless as possible for industry and ATO.

Reuniting more super Bill has passed and received Royal Assent –The Superannuation Administration Group (an ATO stakeholder relationship group) has been working with industry to develop an interim reporting approach for the new category of trustee payments which is a new category of unclaimed super money (USM) paid that is reported to the ATO under the USM framework. The enduring reporting solution is a new USM code which is being delivered as part of the rollover v3 project.

The final release of a one-pager for Early Release of Superannuation statistics is imminent. The report will be consistent with the former report released for Phase 1 of the scheme.

Around 28,300 employers engaged with the super guarantee amnesty, disclosing around $912.5 million in Superannuation Guarantee Charge. Much of that has been paid or is in payment arrangements. There is a small group of employers the ATO is continuing to work with.

The annual superannuation key rates and thresholds have been published on ato.gov.au

AFCA review

Heather Gray, Lead Ombudsman – Superannuation, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), provided an update about the Independent review of AFCA announced by the Federal Government on 19 February 2021. This was required under the legislation that established AFCA in 2018. The review is independent of AFCA and being conducted by Treasury. The report is to be finalised by 30 June 2021.

AFCA lodged a detailed submission (PDF 2.25MB)This link will download a file about their performance in the first two years of operation, including details of more than 153,000 complaints received with 146,000 of them finalised; almost half finalised within an average of 31 days. The overall average time of determination of a matter was 74 days.

Discussion with Minister for Superannuation Financial Services and the Digital Economy

Senator the Honourable Jane Hume, Minister for Superannuation Financial Services and the Digital Economy, discussed the future direction of the Retirement system and responded to questions from members.

Cyber security in the superannuation industry

Jan McClelland and Michelle Bower, Gateway Network Governance Body (GNGB), discussed the key findings and outcomes from the GNGB recently released Securing the Future: Protecting Australia’s superannuation ecosystem against cybersecurity threats (PDF, 999KB)This link will download a file report.

They discussed the driver for commissioning the report being recognition that the interconnected nature of the Superannuation ecosystem means risks outside of GNGB’s control can have the potential to impact the Superannuation Transaction Network and Gateway Operators. The report estimates over 1.5 million organisations along the value chain are responsible for managing superannuation data. Through the report, GNGB set out to understand the size and extent of the risks outside their direct control and looked along the data value chain to see what could be done to mitigate those risks.

The Research included engagement with over 80 individuals across the value chain, from employers and their agents, for example, payroll providers, through to Super Funds and administrators, to understand the risks they were managing. Findings included challenges with the regulatory environment across the superannuation eco-system. Regulations tend to be quite targeted or siloed to various sectors which means across the eco-system there is no consistent baseline in place in terms of cybersecurity controls. The report sets out Calls to Action to industry and government, individual organisations and superannuation members. There is an opportunity for collaboration on the calls to action including definition of accountabilities across the ecosystem, ensuring a minimum baseline of cyber controls, development of a joint incident response framework and threat sharing capabilities.

The GNGB presentation was provided to members along with these key messages.

APRA / ASIC forward work plan

APRA and ASIC outlined their forward work plans, articulating how their focuses are aligned. Area of focus include underperformance, governance, trustee resilience and conflicts.

Expansion of ASICs role as regulator

Jane Eccleston, Senior Executive Leader, ASIC, discussed some of the reforms that took place from 1 January 2021 which expanded ASIC’s role as conduct regulator in superannuation without impacting APRA’s role.

ASIC’s role under Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 expanded so that in addition to exposure and record keeping, ASIC is given responsibilities in relation to consumer protection and marketing integrity and ASIC’s scope to take conduct action was expanded through changes to Corporations Act and the ASIC Act with the introduction of a new financial service, providing a superannuation trustee service.

Wrap up and close

David Knox thanked members for their input and noted that the group will meet for a number of out of session meetings including:

  • Your Future, Your Super tools
  • Two topics to be presented by Tax and Transfer Policy Institute
    • Impacts of capping concessional superannuation contributions (in April)
    • Does the early release of retirement savings prolong labour market participation for workers approaching retirement? Evidence from Australia’s `Transition to Retirement Income Streams’ program (in June).
     

Eva Scheerlinck, Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees, reminded members about the Conference of Major Superannuation FundsExternal Link in Adelaide on 18–19 May 2021.

Attendees

Attendees list

Organisation

Attendees

ATO

Larissa Evans, Superannuation and Employer Obligations

ATO

Malcolm Allen, Superannuation and Employer Obligations

Association of Super Funds of Australia

Glen McCrea

Australian Financial Complaints Authority

Heather Gray

Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees

Eva Scheerlinck

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Katrina Ellis

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Lucinda McCann

Australian Securities and Investments Commission

Alex Purvis

Australian Securities and Investments Commission

Jane Ecclestons

Business Council of Australia

Ben Davies

Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand

Tony Negline

Commonwealth Government

Minister the Honourable Jane Hume

COTA Australia

Ian Yates

Financial Services Council

Jane Macnamara

Gateway Network Governance Body

Jan McClelland

Gateway Network Governance Body

Michelle Bower

Industry Super Australia

Michael Fisher

Law Council of Australia

Michael Mathieson

Law Council of Australia

Michelle Levy

Link Group

Justin Sadler

Mercer

David Knox (Co-chair)

SMSF Association

John Maroney

Super Consumers Australia

Franco Morelli

The Tax Institute

Phil Broderick

Treasury

Alex Maevsky

Treasury

Lynn Kelly

Apologies

Apologies list

Organisation

Members

ATO

Dana Fleming (Co-chair), Superannuation and Employer Obligations

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Helen Rowell

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

Suzanne Smith

Super Consumers Australia

Xavier O'Halloran

QC65328