The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has come out against one of the key questions posed by the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry into the structure and operation of the superannuation industry, making clear it does not believe all trustees should be required to be public companies.
In a submission to the inquiry filed late last week, APRA makes clear that it believes the existing arrangements covering superannuation fund trustees are working well and points out that while the Superannuation Industry Supervision Act requires the trustee of a public offer superannuation entity to be a constitutional corporation, there is no requirement for the body corporate to be a public company.
“Indeed, it is not clear to APRA whether requiring trustees of superannuation funds to be public companies, similar to the requirement for the responsible entity of a managed investment scheme, would provide additional protections for members and beneficiaries of superannuation funds,” the submission said.
Summing up its view of the question posed by the terms of reference of the Parliamentary inquiry, APRA said the additional protections for members that came from requiring all trustees to be public companies were not readily apparent.
It said this was especially the case given the regulator’s preference for less prescriptive rulemaking.
