Superannuation funds face "vastly increased" data collection requirements when new Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) requirements come into force in the middle of this year, according to IQ Group.
"Client estimates forecast the involvement from two to five team members when this particular set of APRA requirements become effective for funds from July 2013," IQ Group chief executive Graham Sammells told InvestorDaily.
He said APRA requires more than 4,000 data elements to be reported across areas including financials, investment holdings, investment performance, fees, insurance, defined benefit matters, services and membership profile.
"Bad" data, or data that is inaccurate, incomplete, outdated or inconsistent, can be identified through reconciliations and testing for data quality, Mr Sammells said.
It's important a fund doesn't remit bad data to APRA, and because APRA reporting requirements are broad and many elements overlap with reporting to other regulators, it's important to have a central or single "source of truth", he said.
As a result, IQ Group has partnered with CCH, a Wolters Kluwer business specialising in tax, accounting and audit information software, to develop a solution to help super funds and administrators meet reporting requirements.
The two groups have developed a reporting tool that they say will help manage risk by providing auditability, traceability, change-control, approvals and a single "source of truth".
