Australian superannuation data APRA’s data collection and publications 24 April 2013

1. Australian superannuation data APRA’s data collection and publications 24 April 2013

2. Background APRA The Australian superannuation landscape Current collection History Why does APRA collect data? Challenges Change underway Legislative change Mismatch between current collection and user’s needs Where to now? APRA’s superannuation data collection

3. APRA • The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the prudential regulator of the Australian financial services industry. It oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry. • Our mission: to establish and enforce prudential standards and practices designed to ensure that, under all reasonable circumstances, financial promises made by institutions we supervise are met within a stable, efficient and competitive financial system. • We also act as the national statistical agency for the Australian financial sector.

4. Predominantly defined contribution Superannuation assets - the same size as Australia’s GDP Stronger super reforms: Prudential standards for superannuation MySuper product Superstream The Australian Superannuation landscape

5. Predecessor agency collections. Primary use / user for data? Mismatch between data collected and users’ needs. History of current collection

6. Prudential Publication On behalf of other financial sector agencies Assist minister to formulate financial policy. Why does APRA collect data?

7. D2A Examples How and why we collect data for prudential standards

8. Data for prudential supervision • Supervisory perspective: a starting point for analysis Compliance with prudential standards. Financial analysis. Flag areas to speak to entity and get further information. • APRA’s powers – key difference to stats agencies

9. Promote understanding and assist research and public discussion on policy-issues, and well-informed decision-making by policy-makers, other regulators, market analysts, researchers and senior management of financial institutions. Promote transparency and accountability of the financial institutions it regulates Publications

10. Publication • Quarterly reports about superannuation • Returns • Fees • Seek to make much of the data publically accessible • Improve how the data can be accessed

11. Challenges for superannuation data collection • Are we measuring accurately what we want to measure? • Seemingly simple questions: • How many superannuation members are there? • What investments does a funds have exposure to? • What are the costs to a member of being in a fund?

12. Defined benefit funding Different structures of super funds result in different reporting. Comparability suffers – how to resolve? Purpose of different users may or may not overlap Challenges: Current examples

13. Challenges for superannuation data publication • How should the market be segmented? • What ratios to publish?

14. ABS ASIC ATO Collect data on behalf of other agencies

15. Discussion paper on publications released later this year. Work in progress Where to now?