APRA releases final reporting requirements for superannuation – select investment options

15.01

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has released a response to submissions and final versions of four reporting standards, reporting forms and instructions for APRA-regulated superannuation funds.

APRA’s new requirements relate to reporting information about certain non-MySuper investment options, known as ‘select investment options’. The four reporting standards released today require the submission of quarterly information about investment performance, asset allocation and member flows, as well as structural information about these investment options.

Submissions on the draft proposals that led to these final requirements were generally supportive of APRA’s proposed approach.

APRA has significantly reduced the compliance burden on industry in reporting on select investment options while still ensuring timely reporting of information on a significant proportion (around 80 per cent) of superannuation industry assets. The new requirements reduce the number of select investment options that the industry will report to APRA by 50 per cent. This has been achieved by only requiring reporting for investment options that exceed the higher quantitative thresholds of $200 million or five per cent of total fund assets. APRA has also removed some qualitative elements of the definition of select investment options. Further information to be reported under the new reporting standards will only be required to be submitted on a quarterly basis and will not be required to be audited.

APRA Member Helen Rowell said ‘APRA is confident that the final requirements strike the right balance between APRA and other stakeholders having access to necessary information, and addressing industry’s concerns about the costs and complexity involved in reporting this information.’

The requirements in Reporting Standard SRS 533.1 Asset Allocation and Members’ Benefit Flows (SRS 533.1) and Reporting Standard SRS 702.1 Investment Performance (SRS 702.1) will take effect from 1 July 2015, with the changes to Reporting Standard SRS 001.0 Profile and Structure (Baseline) and Reporting Standard SRS 601.0 Profile and Structure (RSE) taking effect from 30 June 2015. APRA will grant transition relief for 18 months to allow RSE licensees 35 calendar days to submit SRS 533.1 and SRS 702.1; from 1 January 2017, the forms will be due within 28 calendar days from the reporting due date.

The response to submissions and the four reporting standards, reporting forms and instructions can be found on the APRA website.