Regulation Impact Statement – Treasury
On 11 November 2021, the Treasurer and the Minister for Superannuation, Financial Services and the Digital Economy announced new regulations to provide greater transparency of portfolio holdings by superannuation funds.
There is limited transparency around how members’ funds are invested and only a limited number of superannuation funds voluntarily disclose their portfolio holdings. While there is a legal framework in place for funds to disclose this information, it has not come into effect because the framework does not prescribe how funds should present this information. This results in uncertainty for funds on how to comply with their obligations and a potential lack of comparability.
The preferred option (option 3) addresses this by prescribing details on how disclosed information is to be organised and allowing superannuation funds to disclose information for certain categories of unlisted assets and derivatives in an aggregated way that protects information considered by funds to be commercially sensitive.
The regulatory costs of the portfolio holdings disclosure regime will affect superannuation funds but the net benefits of greater transparency, consumer engagement and competition are expected to outweigh the costs.
The Treasury prepared and certified a Regulation Impact Statement (RIS), which the Office of Best Practice Regulation (OBPR) assessed as good practice.
The RIS estimates the average annual regulatory costs at $5.2 million.