What will technological change bring to superannuation?

The technology revolution roundtable

Part 1: Super custodians and administrators contest their share
Part 2: How does technology impact custody mandates?
Part 3: What is driving change in the custodian/administrator space?
Part 4: The impact of currency hedging
Part 5: The cost of Stronger Super
Part 6: What will technological change bring to superannuation?

A Super Review roundtable recently considered the question: What significant changes will technology bring to superannuation custodians, technology providers and fund executives?

Mike Taylor, managing editor, Super Review: Okay last question, and I guess it’s because of where we are in the political cycle as much as anything. We’ve all worked on the premise that Stronger Super is there, it’s got through Parliament already and there are no unknowns.

Is there anything sitting out there from the perspective of custodians, technology providers and fund executives, is there anything out there that’s going to change anything significantly at the moment?

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Is there anything out there that’s troubling you, that we might have to change a whole lot of things because of it – and actually I’ll start with one of the custodians, David?

David Braga, managing director, J.P Morgan WSS: I don’t think there’s anything that troubles me regarding changes. The one thing that the industry’s doing through consultation with Treasury is the holdings disclosure and what needs to be done for members on that front.

So Treasury’s already come out to say there’s going to be further consultation around that.

That doesn’t trouble me either way because I think when it comes to the regulator, to APRA [the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority], they’re going to mandate the level of transparency’s already been stipulated by APRA. We’ve got to do it.

I think there’s still an outstanding question as to how much of that will also go to the member – but that’s a fairly obvious one that’s still in motion. It’ll resolve at some stage in the next three/six months. I don’t see any other cloud on the horizon.

Mike Taylor, Super Review: Alex?

Alex Hutchison, CEO, Energy Industries Superannuation Scheme: Just in relation to Stronger Super and MySuper generally. I still think there needs to be a bit more detail come out from regulators on that.

I would probably like some more granulatory over the three-day period to effect rollovers. Probably a couple more in that vein, but does it particularly trouble me?

No, we’ll get there at the end of the day; but like any regulatory change it’s in the detail, and some understanding on those things that we can all implement effectively would always be appreciated.

Mike Taylor, Super Review: Peter Curtis?

Peter Curtis, head of investment operations, AustralianSuper: I don’t think there’s anything out there that’s troubling me. I think it’s the opportunities are out there and the ability to drive the change through so that the members get a better outcome from the whole investment process that we’re doing.  

There’s the growth of this industry, the speed that the money comes in and the opportunities that opens up.

There’s the ability to continue to make those changes and get them done efficiently and keep driving those benefits back to the members.

I can see this industry as all opportunity. We get a bit caught up on MySuper and a few of those things, but it’s regulation, it’s going to happen, get over it. It’s the positives of the industry that I think we should spend more time focusing on.

Peter Hill, managing director, SimCorp: There’s inevitably though an underlying trend for transparency of data and timeliness of data and I think that’s the systems challenge for both our organisation but more importantly for the direct service providers, receiver funds, the custodians.  

It’s the ability to access information from either regulatory point of view or from a member point of view in a timely fashion and that information’s got to be accurate, it’s got to be consistent, I think that’s the sleeping challenge as members become more educated and regulators continue to see it as growing pool which is potentially a problem and it’s not regulated and managed properly so I think it’s the transparency and timeliness of information[are the issues].

David Braga, J.P Morgan WSS: And you could add to that, and personalise, but either to a fund or to an individual, and report outputs that you require.

Mike Taylor, Super Review: Okay, gentlemen, thank you very much.