APRA releases consultation package on revised reporting requirements for superannuation

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released for consultation a discussion paper outlining its proposed revised reporting requirements for APRA-regulated superannuation funds. The consultation package includes 31 draft reporting forms and instructions.

APRA’s proposed reporting requirements implement the transparency and accountability recommendations from the Government’s Stronger Super reforms, and the proposals APRA previously consulted on in 2009. The proposed new requirements also support the implementation of prudential standards, MySuper products and SuperStream. These proposed revisions will be the first changes to the reporting requirements for superannuation since 2004.

The main proposed changes to reporting requirements include:

• information about each trustee, fund, sub-fund, MySuper product and select choice investment options. This replaces the focus at fund level in the current data collection and responds to previous industry commentary on the limitations of APRA’s fund-level superannuation reporting;
• information about investment returns for each MySuper product and select choice investment options. This will allow greater comparability across the industry, particularly between MySuper products; and
• the collection of expanded information about investments, including looking through investment structures to identify and understand ultimate investment asset allocation and costs.

APRA Deputy Chairman Ross Jones said APRA is proposing material changes to the superannuation data collection. ‘Overall, APRA expects that this new data collection will be of significant benefit to all industry stakeholders by providing greater transparency of investments and costs.’

‘As with the introduction of prudential standards for superannuation, these proposals are raising the bar to bring the superannuation data collection to a level that is consistent with the other industries APRA regulates,’ he said.

This consultation package outlines a substantially larger data collection than is currently in place for the superannuation industry. APRA acknowledges the extensive scope of the proposals and encourages industry to provide feedback as to how the proposed data collection would best support objectives of transparency and comparability across the industry, as well as APRA’s prudential supervision.

Consultation on the draft reporting requirements closes on 16 November 2012 and the final superannuation reporting standards are expected to be determined and released in the first half of 2013. The requirements in the final reporting standards are expected to take effect from 1 July 2013 with the first publication using the new data in late 2013.

The discussion paper and the 31 draft reporting forms and instructions can be found on the APRA website