Will AMP retain its corporate super mandates?
AMP Limited may be faced with further questioning from the corporate superannuation funds to which it provides outsourced services, following the findings of the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry.
With the company late last year losing two significant corporate superannuation mandates, AMP would now be faced with the Royal Commission’s significant criticism of the structures within which its superannuation funds operated, particularly its outsource arrangements.
Commissioner Hayne said that he was satisfied that the trustees’ implementation of their outsourcing arrangement may have been conduct that was inconsistent with the legislation and that the poor outcomes delivered to beneficiaries point towards that conclusion.
“A poor outcome for beneficiaries may point to a specific inadequacy in the process used by the trustee. In general, the poor outcomes achieved by the AMP trustees require an explanation as to why they occurred and went undetected for so long if the trustees’ processes were adequate,” he said.
“Indeed, one of the most basic tasks undertaken by a trustee acting in the best interests of its members and exercising the care, skill and diligence of a prudent superannuation trustee would be to engage in a process of self-evaluation to pinpoint the reasons for a poor outcome.”
Hayne also took the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) to task for failing to adequately deal with the problems within AMP.
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