IQ Group’s Sammells said simplicity was the name of the game – there was “absolutely no reason” why every Superannuation Guarantee payment had to be accompanied by the recipient’s full name, date of birth, Tax File Number and email address. “In this day and age people rarely change their mobile phone number, so combine that with a TFN and you’ve got a great identifier,” he said. Another possibility for a legislated set of standards was one modelled on those already established for rollovers between Pillar, Superpartners and AAS, the three administrators that together account for 80 per cent of all superannuation transactions in Australia. Sammells said those three administrators were “just breaking the ground” with their collaboration, and that overall the differences with the swimEC standards would not be that great, given the overlaps of people involved.

He said the window of standards development was still open, and urged anybody with ideas for ideal standards to contribute to Jeremy Cooper’s “execution plan”. Both speakers said the industry would eventually need to “jump on something” in terms of common standards for superannuation contributions and transfers, and that all administrators and clearing houses should adopt those standards as a condition of their licences. The pair did baulk at employers being fined for continuing to send in their contribution details on a beer coaster – they hoped that technology and standardisation would eventually convince most small business people to remit super correctly. McMurtie hoped that with or without government, the superannuation industry might one day be able to agree on a standard remittance form. “Those forms really are the plumbing – your organisation gains nothing from asking for the information in its own unique way, or from having its logo on there,” he said.