The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has foreshadowed having to levy more from the superannuation industry to help pay for the extension of its performance heat maps to the choice sector.
APRA chair, Wayne Byers flagged the necessity to fund the exercise in his opening address to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics, suggesting the regulator had little other choice.
He said that where choice products were concerned, the challenge was greatest.
“Unfortunately, the comparability and consistency of that information has proven inadequate. Choice creates a major challenge, as there are well over 40,000 superannuation investment options on offer,” Byers said.
“We will have to be more prescriptive in what we ask for, and potentially diverge from other reporting requirements in some areas. That will come at a cost to the system. But being able to genuinely assess member outcomes requires more granular product and investment option level data.”
Byers said that APRA’s superannuation heatmap – designed to provide important information on the outcomes being delivered by every MySuper product – would be published in full next week, and represented a major leap forward in transparency and accountability in the superannuation industry.
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The Grattan Institute has labelled the Australian super system as “too complicated” and has proposed a three-pronged reform strategy to simplify superannuation in retirement.
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Apples with Apples, Pears with Pears, Lemons with Lemons. I think the heatmap will raise more questions than it answers; no two funds are identical. Is it time for a National Super Fund ??
Yet another advantage of establishing your own SMSF. No Govt heatmap costs. Just cost on cost on cost - it never stops. Another cost saving by going SMSF