APRA zeroes in on intra-fund advice, insurance

In a statement released on Wednesday, APRA said it would temporarily beef up its reporting requirements for funds "to enable assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the superannuation industry and the outcomes being delivered to members".

Funds would now be required to submit monthly data around how many members had been given intra-fund advice related to early release payments, as well as the number of member accounts that had had their insurance cancelled due to account closure or insufficient funds to pay premiums.

In addition, monthly reporting would also include the number of insurance claims that were received, awaiting determination and finalised each month, the number of fraud incidents flagged and whether funds' fraud risk profiles had changed during the month.

Funds would also face questions around their operational resilience and whether any key business activities had been disrupted as a result of the crisis.

A further quarterly reporting template would also require funds to disclose data around their investment options, foreign currency hedging and member switching. 

The news comes following recent questioning from House economics committee member Tim Wilson around the resilience of industry funds' investment strategies in the face of the COVID crisis and calls for a review of the sector.