Guidance

The guidance relates to the new product dashboard requirements for MySuper products, and the new fees and costs disclosure requirements for product disclosure statements (PDSs) and periodic statements.

Product dashboard

From 31 December 2013, trustees will be required to publish and keep up to date, a product dashboard for their new MySuper products. MySuper products are the new default products in superannuation, replacing over time existing default funds. The product dashboards will enable consumers to compare their super with other funds and products.

Information Sheet 170 MySuper product dashboard requirements for superannuation trustees (INFO 170) explains what information must be provided for each of the following measures:

• the return target
• the returns for previous financial years
• a comparison between the return target and returns for previous financial years
• the level of investment risk, and
• a statement of fees and other costs.

INFO 170 also contains an example of what the product dashboard may look like, which incorporates some of the feedback from the independent consumer testing conducted by Latitude Insights.

The results of the testing have been released as ASIC Report 378 Consumer testing of the MySuper product dashboard (REP 378).

Recently the Australian Government released a Discussion Paper 2013 Better regulation and governance, enhanced transparency and improved competition in superannuation which looks at, among other things, the choice product dashboard.

ASIC Commissioner Greg Tanzer said: ‘We hope that the dashboard example provided by ASIC will help trustees see the potential of the product dashboard and its benefits to consumers.’

It is an example only to help illustrate the potential of the dashboard: not all of the content requirements are specifically required by the legislation, or by APRA’s Reporting Standard SRS 700.0 Product Dashboard.

In 2014, ASIC plans to publish information from the product dashboards on its MoneySmart website, based on data provided by APRA.

Fees and costs disclosure

The Superannuation Legislation (MySuper Measures) Regulations 2013 changed the existing superannuation and managed investment fee disclosure requirements under the Corporations Regulations 2001. ASIC has issued FAQ guidance to help super trustees with respect to these changes.

Importantly, ASIC guidance emphasises that there should not be double counting of fees.

Consultation

ASIC has also released Consultation Paper 219 Keeping superannuation websites up to date (CP 219), which considers what ‘up to date at all times’ means in the context of s29QB of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act). These requirements relate to executive officer remuneration disclosure and other systemic transparency measures.

ASIC proposes giving trustees a ‘safe harbour’, so that they are taken to comply with the updating obligation in s29QB if they update the fund website within a specified time. That time is generally 14 days.

ASIC is seeking feedback by 3 February 2014.

In relation to s29QB, ASIC has also recently amended its Class Order [CO 13/830] to extend the timeframe for compliance with the requirements of this section until 1 July 2014.

Further, ASIC has issued FAQs in relation to the s29QB disclosure requirements, including providing guidance on the definition of executive officers. This information is available on its superannuation page.

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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.

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