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Super reporting requires focus resource use
The completion of the mandated lodgement of data for superannuation funds has highlighted the need for more industrialised reporting systems according to DST Global Solutions.
DST Global Solutions Head of Business Development, Australia & New Zealand Rhys Octigan super funds have approached the mandated reporting to the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) by "throwing resources at the problem and seeing what needed to be done".
However he said this approach was not sustainable for future reporting periods and funds were looking at a wide range of solutions.
"It is hard to look through data and get layers and layers of information correct and be sure of a submission before placing it with APRA. It is also very difficult to unpick manually compiled data to focus on particular requests from APRA," Octigan said.
He said it has become clear since the reporting period closed that 80 per cent of the work was collating and validating data and 20 per cent was creating forms and lodging the data.
As a result he said DST Global Solutions had rolled out improvements to its Anova APRA reporting solution that pre-validated data using the same criteria as APRA and detected issues with data before it was submitted.
He said super funds were realising that meeting APRA reporting stands was more than filling out forms and that according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia there were APRA queries on over 2,000 anomalies and 585 re-submissions for the first reporting quarter to September 2013.
DST Global Solutions Global Solutions Head, Data Management & Analytics Julian Webb said while complying with APRA reporting standards was required adopting new technologies also created business efficiencies.
"Good data underpins all parts of a business and smart firms are not acting solely to meet the regulatory burden but also to create competitive advantages and enterprise wide solutions to managing investment and member data," Webb said.
AUTHOR
Jason Spits
Jason has been writing on financial services since 1999 and has worked for on a number of trade media titles in both a full time and freelance capacity. He joined Money Management and Super Review in 2013 in the role of Senior Journalist.
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