POWERED BY MOMENTUM MEDIA
ASFA demands clarity on levy allocation
The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) has urged for transparency on how the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) distributes and allocates levies.
ASFA noted that APRA has not published a Cost Recovery Impact Statement (CRIS), outlining when the levies are used to recover costs according to the government’s cost recovery guidelines and when they are not.
It also wants more transparency on how the costs of an activity are recovered through the levies process.
“It is regrettable that industry is once again in the position of considering proposed levy amounts without access to the level of information necessary to make an informed assessment of the level of costs the Regulators are seeking to recover,” ASFA said in a submission to the 'Proposed financial industry levies for 2014-15’ consultation paper by APRA .
In future, APRA should release a CRIS simultaneously with the release of the annual consultation paper laying out the proposed levies, and whenever there is change in activities related to cost recovery, ASFA said.
ASFA also urged self-managed super funds be subject to the per member SuperStream levy.
Although the revenue would be moderate, the total accumulated across the SMSF arena would be significant and would mean a more even distribution of the SuperStream costs across all funds, it said.
It also argued that since non-levied entities such as employers also enjoyed the benefits of SuperStream, a slice of the SuperStream component should be fulfilled from consolidated revenue.
ASFA is also unhappy the consultation paper does not specify how much money assigned to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will be allocated to the Superannuation Complaints Tribunal.
While $11.9 million will be allocated to ASIC to cover SCT and other activities, it does not outline the specific amount for SCT.
This is in contrast to last year’s paper, which said $5.8 million will be allocated to run the SCT.
Recommended for you
The super fund announced that Gregory has been appointed to its executive leadership team, taking on the fresh role of chief advice officer.
The deputy governor has warned that, as super funds’ overseas assets grow and liquidity risks rise, they will need to expand their FX hedge books to manage currency exposure effectively.
Super funds have built on early financial year momentum, as growth funds deliver strong results driven by equities and resilient bonds.
The super fund has announced that Mark Rider will step down from his position of chief investment officer (CIO) after deciding to “semi-retire” from full-time work.
TOP PERFORMING FUNDS
ACS FIXED INT - AUSTRALIA/GLOBAL BOND
Fund name
3y(%)pa
1
DomaCom DFS Mortgage
76.97 3 y p.a(%)
2
Global X 21Shares Bitcoin ETF
76.46 3 y p.a(%)
3
UBS Solactive Global Pure Gold Miners UCITS ETF Dis USD
51.13 3 y p.a(%)
4
Global X GlobalX FANG+ ETF
45.15 3 y p.a(%)
5
Select Baker steel Gold Institutional
43.78 3 y p.a(%)
