In its submission to the Financial System Inquiry, the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) said there is currently no "system-wide view" of superannuation available to a regulator or public policymaker.
The lack of information about the asset holdings of SMSFs was a particular concern for ASFA.
"While data collection across APRA-regulated funds has increased considerably, the ATO is not at this time able to provide the same level of information on SMSFs," said the submission.
"Without this data, it is difficult to assess the extent of any of the risks emerging in the system," said ASFA.
There may be no large concentrations of exposures in the superannuation industry now, but changes in technology over coming decades could see money moving around the system much faster, said the submission.
ASFA also said there is no clear visibility of the "significant role" of other parties such as administrators, custodians, clearing houses and gateways.
The Australian superannuation system is also building up concentration risk exposures to "key partners" such as custodians and administrators, said the submission.
"The failure of any one of these would present issues for their superannuation fund clients," said ASFA.
"At present, each superannuation trustee is responsible for managing the risk of their outsourced service providers. A time may come when the system-wide exposure to any one custodian or any one administration company is very high.
"While assets may not be at risk, their failure to deliver services may have a significant short-term impact on the economy and on those Australians waiting for their regular benefit payments to be made," said the submission.
