A Practice Guide on Stronger Super …..

for Australian asset owners and managers

In 2009, the Federal Government commenced its review, the “Cooper Review”, into the superannuation sector – Super System Review. 

The key outcomes of this review were: 

• Introduction of “MySuper” – a new simple low cost default superannuation product,
• Improved regulatory oversight by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), Australian
• Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO), and
• Implementation of SuperStream

Introduction of the significant reforms (referred to as Stronger Super) has resulted in improved and increased regulatory oversight by the regulatory bodies. 

New disclosure and reporting requirements have necessitated the need for a consistent approach by industry participants.

To this end, ACSA established the Stronger Super Task Force to collaboratively review reporting requirements and determine the best way to efficiently and pragmatically fulfil them.

Although custodians are not required to report to APRA themselves, they are in the unique position of having both Responsible Superannuation Entities (RSE's) and Investment Managers as clients. The combination of having such a broad industry reach and an intimate understanding of data flows and investment structures enable custodians to work towards an industry consensus that will facilitate the consistency of reporting.

ACSA has been working closely with APRA to resolve interpretation issues and establishing pragmatic reporting solutions to meet these disclosure requirements.

 
This Practice Guide brings together the outcomes of the industry collaboration and engagement with APRA to provide a description of the approach that ACSA expects members to implement in providing their own response to the Stronger Super regime, especially as regards the RSE regulatory reporting. By its very nature, this Practice Guide is general in nature and does not look to take into account every possible circumstance. It is still the responsibility of each RSE and custodian to perform their own independent assessment and if necessary secure their own independent advice on the regulations and ensure their own individual compliance to the regulations. 
This Practice Guide aims to summarise the outcome of the collaboration to date to give wider industry transparency.

ACSA expects all members to be compliant with the outcomes described in this guide or otherwise be able to explain to an RSE client their rationale for any areas of non-compliance. 

The key areas of focus within the Guide are as follows: 

1. APRA reporting 
a) Quarterly reporting deadlines
b) Look through reporting 
c) Asset class classification 
d) Currency hedging
2. Outsourcing Standards

This Practice Guide will be updated from time to time as required. 

The information published is based on information available at the date noted in the footer.

Read the full guide by clicking here.

Note: Access is exclusive to ACSA members.