Regulators need joint SBR implementation

Australian regulators should jointly implement the Standard Business Reporting (SBR) framework in order to ensure consumers are protected under new super fund reporting requirements, IQ Group chief executive, Graham Sammells said.

New reporting requirements will turn the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) into a product regulator as well as a fund prudential regulator, Sammells said.

And the regulators, APRA and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will be forced to review their relationship in light of ASIC's responsibilities to the consumer, he said.

The Standard Business Reporting (SBR) framework should be jointly implemented in light of data being collected in an ad hoc fashion, according to Sammells.

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"Enhancing SBR for the superannuation industry, with a whole of government focus, will be a key enabler for the industry to meet the requirements as efficiently as possible, and to minimise the costs for members," he said.

It would also smooth out the subtle but important differences between data elements reported to ASIC and APRA, Sammells said, which included definition of asset classes, allocation of assets into asset classes and the definition of fees and costs.

He said the job of collecting the data was now beyond any analyst in any trustee office and so manual collection was "completely inadequate."

The level of detail required would also require a wholesale change in third-party contracts as it would often be more than funds and custodians currently collect.

"Everything on the product dashboard and fund advertising will have to be based on the data reported to APRA. Funds need to have clear protocols governing the use of the data, data dictionaries, and means by which they are kept up-to-date.

"There needs to be traceability from source to report, with robust processes that ensure the requisite reviews and approvals," he said.