With APRA’s Prudential Practice Guide CPG 230 Operational Risk Management now finalised, and the 1 July 2025 effective date looming, it is critical that funds understand the data and technology impacts. If organisations can get their approach right, it could be a potential opportunity to run safer and stabler operations, rather than simply a box-ticking exercise.
ASX-listed Insignia Financial has rejected the non-binding $2.7 billion offer from Bain Capital, saying the bid “does not adequately represent fair value” for shareholders.
A 12-month review by APRA into super funds’ unlisted asset valuation and liquidity practices has highlighted a range of findings the regulator has labelled as “concerning”. The review echoes similar concerns raised in the independent report by Deloitte that revealed shortcomings with how the skills and competencies of trustees appointed to the Cbus board are assessed and verified.
Avoided emissions may be getting harder to avoid, and as the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) conducts consultation on planned refinements to its guidance, it will no doubt be keeping a wary eye out for corporate contortionists keen to bolster their climate credentials.
With hundreds of thousands of members retiring every year, super funds do not have the luxury of time to develop effective retirement income solutions. With the regulators already on their backs, solving the issue quickly will require a collaborative effort and smart ways of combining the scale and efficiency offered by funds with the personalised expertise of financial advisers.
Ownership of the surviving wealth institutions may be set for another shake-up as big global investors circle Insignia Financial and Colonial First State. But it remains to be seen whether Wall Street buyers have paid sufficient attention to how these assets became stranded in the first place and if they could resist the temptation of vertical integration.
Life insurer TAL and super fund administrator MUFG Pension & Market Services (formerly Link) have been questioned by the Senate about their respective roles in delays to insurance claims lodged by Cbus members. TAL has disputed the characterisation of its relationship with Cbus as providing incentives for the fund to deny or delay claims, while MUFG declined to say whether it agreed with Cbus chair Wayne Swan’s assertion that the delays were its fault.
AMP Super has become the first Australian super fund, and one of the first global pension investors, to allocate money into cryptocurrency. It gained the exposure through an internal quant trading program of bitcoin futures in its DAA program. Sceptical observers say the level of interest in cryptocurrency from funds is “very correlated” with market highs, but the lack of economic fundamentals weakens the long-term investment case.
Former Future Fund chief investment officer Sue Brake has been appointed to the NZ Super board.
Women in Super celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2024, and it’s come a long way from being a breakfast networking event to now being a 5000-member-strong organisation. Founded by the late industry super architect Mavis Robertson, the advocacy organisation has the ambitious goal of “working itself into redundancy”, but for now, chief executive Jo Kowalczyk says its work is unfinished.
The challenges faced by Australia’s largest superannuation fund, AustralianSuper, have some strong parallels with the challenges faced by the UK’s largest defined-contribution fund, NEST. The Fiduciary Investors Symposium at the University of Oxford heard how each fund is leaning into its growth challenges from a cultural and investment perspective.
Life insurer AIA Australia has announced that it has renewed its partnership with Colonial First State to continue as its group insurer.
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We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of this land upon which Conexus Financial sits, the Cadigal of the Eora Nation. We recognise their continuing connection and unique cultural and spiritual relationships to the land, waters and community. We pay our deepest respects to them and their culture, and to Elders both past and present.
