Government moves to improve the portability of superannuation between Australia and New Zealand may cause undue to complexity for Australian superannuation funds, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA).
In a submission filed with the Treasury, ASFA has generally supported the trans-Tasman initiative, but expressed concern about the complexity of administration arrangements requiring transferred amounts to be separately recorded and tracked.
"Implementing this from an Australian fund perspective will require amendments to database structures and, significantly, an amendment to the about-to-be-released data standards for rollovers," it said.
The ASFA submission said that while it accepted the contributions would be voluntary, in practice it considered that market forces would eventually result in all funds considering it necessary to accept the transfer, thus requiring them to "implement the changes at considerable cost".
Further, the submission warned that the workload already being incurred by superannuation funds as a result of the Stronger Super changes might delay their preparedness to accept funds from New Zealand.
"Due to the complexity of the changes and the significant amount of already-scheduled IT development work, it would not surprise if a significant number of Australian superannuation funds decided not to accept Kiwi Saver transfers until some time post-mid-2013," it said.
