Members of Australia’s financial services sector have expressed mixed views about the likely impact the Stronger Super reforms will have on the industry.
Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia chief executive Pauline Vamos said the impact would be significant.
“I think that those funds who have not invested in their systems in the last few years are going to find it very difficult to catch up,” Vamos said as part of a panel session at yesterday’s Centre for Economic Development 2011 superannuation industry update.
“I think those funds who have not been developing some sort of advice capability are going to struggle as well.”
Vamos said areas of difficulty for the industry could be the new operational risk requirements and the transparency reporting under the new data methodology under the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
MLC & NAB Wealth group executive Steve Tucker said from a corporate structure point of view he did not believe there would be huge winners or losers from the reforms.
“I think the challenge is to try and come up with a package that’s to the benefit of consumers and doesn’t necessarily favour any industry segment,” Tucker said.
“I think if you look through the package and the process of getting to this point, in many cases a lot of effort has been put in to try and keep everybody happy, which actually doesn’t give you the best outcome sometimes.”
In terms of structural change, he said such change was “afoot” in the way the financial planning industry was set up and that would play out in the next few years.
“I think there is absolute benefit in continuing to consolidate to get to scale and that might mean there are fewer funds at the big end of town,” he said.
REST chief executive Damian Hill labelled MySuper as a cornerstone in trying of provide the retail and institutional sectors with a level playing field.
In regards to how the reforms would impact on the self-managed superannuation fund sector (SMSF), Self-Managed Super Fund Professionals’ Association of Australia technical director Peter Burgess predicted the reforms would aid sector growth.
“I think the SMSF sector will continue to grow. More and more investors are seeking that level of engagement and are seeking that level of transparency and SMSFs are delivering in that space,” Burgess said.
