The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has made clear it wants more powers, telling the Productivity Commission (PC) its lack of critical powers in superannuation “inhibits its ability to take timely and proactive action”.
On the eve of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services industry, APRA used a submission filed as part of the PC review of Superannuation Efficiency and Competitiveness to point to some superannuation funds falling significantly short in terms of meeting new prudential standards flowing from the Government’s 2012 Stronger Super changes.
It said that progress had been variable across the industry with some trustees taking significant strides towards better practices while “others have (in some cases considerable) considerable room for improvement”.
“Similarly, the quality of the outcomes being provided for members varies widely across the industry,” it said.
The APRA submission said that while the regulatory framework had been improved by recent legislative reforms, “the continued absence of critical powers in superannuation for APRA inhibits its ability to take timely and proactive action”.
It said that on this basis, APRA was strongly supporting progress of legislation currently before the Parliament which includes a directions powers and a requirement for APRA approval of material changes of ownership of trustees, together with providing APRA with authority to refuse or cancel an authority to offer a MySuper product.
