“What does it matter a hill of beans which fund merges into which?” With those words, Royal Commissioner, Kenneth Hayne, indicated his feelings with respect to the failure of Catholic Super to undertake a successful merger with Australian Catholic Super Retirement Fund.
The Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry had been told that the proposed merger was now back on foot due to discussions between the new chairmen of both funds but that it had failed over disagreements as to which was the dominant fund.
The deputy chairman of Catholic Super, Peter Haysey, told the Royal Commission that his fund’s board had held concerns about Catholic Super not being the successor fund because of its scale and superior returns.
However, Commissioner Hayne pointed to the two funds having agreed to the two funds having agreed to having six seats each on the board of a merged fund plus an independent chair and the ability of that board to set the tone of the merged organisation.
Haysey then pointed out that the possibility of a merger between the two funds was still on foot with discussions having been restarted.
The two funds have announced the signing of a non-binding MOU to explore a potential merger.
The board must shift its focus from managing inflation to stimulating the economy with the trimmed mean inflation figure edging closer to the 2.5 per cent target, economists have said.
ASIC chair Joe Longo says superannuation trustees must do more to protect members from misconduct and high-risk schemes.
Super fund mergers are rising, but poor planning during successor fund transfers has left members and employers exposed to serious risks.