The superannuation industry had to wait with baited breath this year for the recommendations put forward by the Superannuation Working Group (SWG) and the Government’s subsequent response.
As the SWG’s independent chair, Don Mercer is viewed as the driving force behind it and was thus nominated.
The former ANZ Bank CEO, who is now retired, plays down the level of influence he has had on the industry over the past 12 months.
“It was really Treasury, ASIC and APRA working together and myself as the independent chair,” he says.
Mercer, who is a director of APRA, says the SWG’s recommendations were well received by the industry because of the intensive consultation process between it and industry.
“The consultation process that we undertook was wide reaching and we feel that the industry was not opposed to more appropriate regulation but understood that the group was working hard to try and get the right answers,” he says.
Mercer says by setting up the SWG, the Government is now able to make changes to superannuation which it otherwise may only have been able to do had it altered specific areas of the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) (SIS) Act 1993.
“The SWG made recommendations to the Government by going to areas that perhaps the SIS Act itself would otherwise have needed some form of alteration, and there’s a great reluctance at the moment by the Government to tackle [SIS].
“This year’s exercise was to put a prudential framework together.”
In his free time, Mercer is an avid golfer and lover of the arts. He is chair of Orchestra Victoria, the orchestra that supports Opera Australia and the Australian Ballet.
