SuperChoice, which processes super contributions made by 50,000 Australian employers, has eliminated the “hand-off ” it once had to make to Westpac via an interface with ANZ which allows it to track transactions every step of the way, according to chief executive officer Peter Philip. The superannuation sector is a “strategic priority” for ANZ, according to the head of its Funds Australia division Philip Carmont, so the banking relationship with SuperChoice “made sense” alongside other better known plays such as its buy-out of ING Australia and rumoured interest in IOOF.


SuperChoice’s Philip said the interface was developed in partnership with ANZ, following a 12 month evaluation of the major bank’s payment offerings. Meanwhile, Philip said the passage of legislation which would enshrine Medicare as provider of a free superannuation clearing service for small businesses “is no foregone conclusion”. He said there was “lots of protest” from employers already using a clearing house, who felt they were being penalised for the investment in efficiency they had already made. Philip predicted the budget Medicare would need to build its clearing hgouse infrastructure would blow out to $100 million from the $16 million assigned it, and that “taxpayers will be paying to reinvent the wheel”.