MySuper timetable still problematic
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has today released the proposed final MySuper authorisation and transition standard, acknowledging a number of unknowns for funds due to the Government's timetable in passing its Stronger Super legislation.
The APRA document represents its response to industry submissions to a discussion paper issued in May, and acknowledges that many superannuation funds wishing to establish MySuper products had expressed concern that they were being asked to formulate policy based on legislation which had not even passed the Parliament.
Referencing the submissions it had received on the issue, APRA noted that, "Given that final prudential standards will not be released until December 2012, submissions requested that APRA permit applicants to provide copies of policies and strategies that have been approved by the licensees on an 'in principle' basis, or on the basis of officer-level or Board committee approval".
The regulator said that it acknowledged "that drafts of documents that will form part of the application may need to be prepared based on draft prudential standards and that these would form the basis for consultation with APRA's responsible supervisors".
The APRA document also acknowledged the level of concern being expressed by superannuation funds around default allocations being automatically being rolled into a MySuper product, particularly those subject to successor fund transfers.
Commenting on the industry submissions, APRA said, "these comments address matters of policy and legislation that are beyond the scope of APRA's consultative process".
"However, APRA understands that these successor fund transfer issues were raised with Treasury in consultation on the exposure draft of the Tranche 3 Bill."
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