A Parliamentary Committee has been told that what may appear to be innovative new offers in the superannuation space are just the selling of well-marketed high-cost products.
Consumer group Choice told the Senate Economics Legislation Committee that the some of the superannuation products are not as innovative as they might pretend to be.
Choice campaigns and communications director, Erin Turner told the Committee’s review of Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s (ASIC’s) regulatory sandbox that there were products in the market which claimed to be innovative but were not either innovative or good.
“We’ve drawn a few examples in our submission. Payday lenders are now innovating in the way that they’re assessing people quite quickly, sometimes in a matter of minutes, to offer a very quick, little loan—a very harmful, quick, little loan,” she said.
“The other example is in the superannuation space. We’ve seen innovative new offers which are really just selling high-cost superannuation products,” Turner said.
“The innovation seems to be in the marketing. They are targeting people quite aggressively in certain segments online and through social media. They’re very good at that, but I wouldn’t say that the product or service itself is good for consumers.”
