APRA takes hands-off approach to multiple super directorships
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has declared it will not actively be intervening to deal with superannuation trustees who hold trustee directorships on multiple funds.
Instead, the regulator has told the Parliament that it will be a matter for the superannuation funds and the trustee directors concerned "to determine whether the holding of multiple directorships results in an unmanageable conflict".
The approach outlined by APRA in answer to a question from Tasmanian Liberal Senator, David Bushby, falls well short of the approach which the Federal Opposition has said it will pursue in the event it gains Government.
The Opposition spokesman on Financial Services, Senator Mathias Cormann, has placed on the record his concerns around conflicts of interest emerging out of people being appointed as trustee directors of multiple funds, particularly in the industry funds arena.
However, APRA said in answer to Senator Bushby's question that legislative and regulatory requirements would impose a duty on super fund directors to "avoid or manage conflicts, as appropriate".
"A directorship on another Registrable Superannuation Entity (RSE) licensee board must be identified and listed on the RSE licensee's register of relevant duties," the APRA answer said.
"It will be left to the RSE licensee and the director concerned to determine whether the holding of multiple directorships results in an unmanageable conflict".
Bushby had asked the regulator how APRA viewed "conflicts of interest such as where trustees are directors of multiple superannuation fund boards?"
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