The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has needed to take account of another legislative/regulatory time lag by allowing superannuation funds more time to meet their portfolio holdings disclosure requirements.
The regulator has amended a class order to provide legal certainty about the portfolio holdings regulations, noting that it was doing so because “the regulations setting out the required disclosures have not yet been made”.
Superannuation funds were supposed to publish information about their fund’s portfolio holdings on 31 December, this year, but ASIC said that as a result of the regulations being delayed the date had been extended by 12 months to 31 December, 2020.
ASIC noted, however, that it supported greater transparency about funds’ portfolio holdings and was therefore encouraging trustees “to focus on designing web site disclosure about holdings that is accessible and clear for their members”.
It said that a number of funds had already taken steps to increase transparency “even in the absence of an explicit legislative obligation to do so”.
ASIC said that most superannuation trustees, as part of portfolio holdings disclosure requirements, had to provide information about fund holdings on the fund website with the first reporting date to identify the holdings of the fund meant to be 31 December 2019, with disclosure required on the trustee’s website no later than 90 days from that date.
The research house has offered a silver lining after super fund returns saw the end of a five-month streak last month.
A survey of almost 6,000 fund members has identified weakening retirement confidence, particularly among those under 55 years of age, signalling an opportunity for super funds to better engage with members on their retirement journey.
The funds have confirmed the signing of a successor fund transfer deed, moving closer to creating a new $29 billion entity.
A number of measures, including super on Paid Parental Leave, funding to recover unpaid super, and frameworks to encourage investment in the energy transition, have been welcomed by the superannuation industry.
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