Jeremy Cooper backs independence on superannuation boards
The former chairman of the Cooper Review, Jeremy Cooper, has made a personal submission to the Productivity Commission backing calls for more independent directors to be appointed to the trustee boards of superannuation funds.
Emphasising that his submission is personal and not related to his employment as a senior executive at Challenger, Cooper said it remained his view that "the super industry would benefit from an increased participation by talented business people not directly connected to super but with relevant skills".
"Such people bring the value of their reputations and have the option of resigning if they feel that they are not adding value or are not happy with the way things are going," the submission said.
"This reflects the legal notion of the 'disinterested' director," Cooper's submission said.
He said it was widely accepted that good governance impacts investment returns, possibly as much as one or two percentage points per annum, meaning that the issue was not trivial.
Referring to the approach adopted by the Cooper Review panel, he said that Australia was rapidly approaching the point where the leading super funds would control $100 billion each and this had led the panel to "question a model that was founded in a $50 million world and to suggest enhancement".
Cooper said those suggested enhancements included that all APRA-regulated super funds had a majority of non-associated directors, unless they were following the equal representation model, in which case it was recommended that not less than one-third be non-associated.
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