The Superannuation Complaints Tribunal (SCT) may not have adequate resourcing to close out all the complaints currently before it to meet the deadline for its closure in 2020.
Senate Estimates has been told that the tribunal is facing a significant workload to close out existing cases before it is subsumed into the new Australian Financial Complaints Authority structure on 1 July 2020.
The chair of the SCT, Helen Davis has told a Senate Estimates committee hearing that as at March, this year, there were 1,600 open complaints in the hands of the tribunal and that it dealt with roughly 2,300 to 2,600 complaints a year.
Under questioning from ACT Labor Senator, Katy Gallagher, Davis confirmed that the SCT was reliant on the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for funding, unless moneys were specifically itemised in the Federal Budget.
“…we do not negotiate our Budget,” Davis said. “ASIC has the obligation to provide the resourcing. Practically how that works is that we have discussions. Indicatively for next year ASIC has advised a budget of $5.1 million.”
The SCT chair said that in context of closing out all complaints before the 2020 deadline, the tribunal was undertaking work to model what resourcing would be required.
The lower outlook for inflation has set the stage for another two rate cuts over the first half of 2026, according to Westpac.
With private asset valuations emerging as a key concern for both regulators and the broader market, Apollo Global Management has called on the corporate regulator to issue clear principles on valuation practices, including guidance on the disclosures it expects from market participants.
Institutional asset owners are largely rethinking their exposure to the US, with private markets increasingly being viewed as a strategic investment allocation, new research has shown.
Australia’s corporate regulator has been told it must quickly modernise its oversight of private markets, after being caught off guard by the complexity, size, and opacity of the asset class now dominating institutional portfolios.