The performance of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has been placed under the spotlight by the findings of the IUS/Super Review Outlook 2004 survey, with more than a quarter of respondents indicating they are happy with the way the regulator is doing its job.
Respondents were questioned about their awareness of the new APRA licensing provisions, supervision of the superannuation industry and whether they thought APRA was doing a good job.
In what represents a disturbing finding for APRA, while a strong 92.3 per cent of respondents indicated they believed APRA supervision was beneficial to the superannuation sector, a disturbing 27.1 per cent indicated they did not believe APRA was doing a good job.
The survey also indicated that at least some work remains to be done with respect to ensuring trustees and executives in the superannuation sector are adequately informed about the implications of the Financial Services Reform Act (FSRA).
With most respondents indicating that FSRA will have a substantially positive impact on their funds, only 26.6 per cent said they were well-informed about the implications of FSRA, with 44.8 per cent claiming to be only moderately well informed, and with just over 10 per cent indicating they were either poorly informed or had received little or no information.
However on the key issue of trustee licensing, APRA can rest easy in the knowledge that 89.5 per cent of respondents said they were aware of the new arrangements, with 83.1 per cent indicating they were in favour of the new regime.
