Joint remarks with APRA Deputy Chair Margaret Cole. Margaret’s remarks are available on the APRA website.

Check against delivery

Acknowledgement of Country

I would like to begin by acknowledging the Ngunnawal people's ongoing connection to and custodianship of the lands on which we meet today and paying my respects to elders past and present. I extend that respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are here today.

Introduction

As Margaret [Cole] stated, it is great to be back here. I think four of the last five Wednesdays we’ve spent together. Perhaps one was a Thursday. So, if you’re wondering about whether ASIC and APRA are joined up, there can be no doubt.

It’s also good to be back here with Conexus and those of you in the room. It’s a year ago that I first met with many faces in the industry and I’d have to agree with Margaret that the energy seems different - and even the faces seem different, which is probably encouraging as we think about momentum, growth, change, and competition – which I’ll talk a bit about.

When we think about the promise of compulsory superannuation first made to Australians up the hill from here, it was that wealth sacrificed over a working life will be preserved and accumulated to draw down upon in retirement. So, it is both a fitting time for me one year on, but also a fitting place for all of us to ask how are we doing at delivering on that promise as a country?

Well, as I've said before, super trustees have done a remarkable job at building the wealth of Australians. But when it comes to helping Australians enjoy that wealth, there is a lot more work to do^[1].

We are three years into the Retirement Income Covenant now. Three years since trustees have been obliged by law to assist members with their retirement.

And while we are seeing some green shoots and some energy today in the room, it’s clear there are leaders and laggards. Some trustees are hitting the straights, and others are still on the starting blocks.

And when you look at the data, it’s clear why this gap is emerging. Three years in, and our recent pulse check with APRA^[2] shows one in five trustees cannot track the success of assistance to members in balancing the objectives of the Retirement Income Covenant. One in five. So I’ve said before that oversight starts with insight – but it is hard to even get to that without that line of sight.

And for us, as the corporate regulator with a mandate to facilitate confident and informed participation in the financial system, that’s a problem.

We know change takes time. We know retirement is easy on paper, but hard in practice.

However, we can’t wait more years to get this right. Each year, more than 100,000 Australians retire^[3]. You can’t wait to serve them better because they need the support right now. Compulsory superannuation must also get more competitive.

Australians lack confidence for retirement

You might be aware that ASIC has been doing a lot of work recently on Moneysmart - and our key focus has been retirement.

We recently improved our guidance on superannuation and retirement to better meet the needs of Australian consumers, helping them to feel confident and informed about their future.

As part of this, we’ve been doing a significant amount of consumer research. And the numbers are pretty confronting.

Of Australians aged between 50 and 66 years, only one-third (33%)^[4] are confident they’ll have a financially comfortable retirement.

Let me repeat that – only one-third of Australians on the cusp of retirement are confident they will be financially comfortable after they leave the workforce.

There’s more. Fewer than one in five Australians (18%) had a clear financial plan before retiring. Only one in four (26%) had high financial literacy. And only two in five (41%) felt confident managing their retirement finances^[5].

Our findings echo those from Conexus and CoreData's recent Best Possible Retirement report which found that fewer than one in three (31%) pre-retirees felt fully or reasonably prepared for retirement. Unfortunately, this was nearly identical to 2024 (31%) and slightly down from 2023 (33%). This shows us the needle has hardly moved despite the Covenant^[6] - at least in this regard.

What really hits home in this report is the gulf emerging in member services. Trustees are highly competitive on fees. They’re relatively competitive on returns. But there’s a sizeable satisfaction gap on member services that’s ultimately impacting member confidence.

Here, I’d like to acknowledge the Government’s recent discussion papers on best practice principles for superannuation retirement income solutions^[7] and the retirement reporting framework^[8]. These are designed to drive better outcomes and transparency, which is needed to bridge the confidence gap. It’s hard to imagine, for example, how that one in five trustees who can’t track that progress in how they are assisting members how they will reconcile that with what these principles call out.

Good for customers, good for business

These numbers are a problem, but they’re also an opportunity.

They show that retirement and member services are two sides of the same coin. Get them right and it’s good for members – for your customers – and I would argue, good for business too.

Indeed, we have been following up on trustees’ progress implementing the Covenant.

One of the themes coming through that work is that trustees who are investing sustainably in communicating with their customers have better member satisfaction – and better member retention too.

So members stay invested with trustees who invest in them.

In an environment where super funds are generally getting bigger and maximising economies of scale, it’s an important reminder that bigger has to be better too – or it won’t stay that way.

Now remember what I said last year right here^[9]: your members are your customers.

Sure, the term ‘member’ comes with particular legal obligations, but they see themselves as customers.

That’s how they’re used to dealing with their financial institutions. And that is the level of service they expect.

From our observations, the trustees doing better on this have a good grip on who their members are. They use the data already at their fingertips, and some now are looking further afield, to truly know who they are serving. Some call this ‘bank-like’ but we think it is just customer-centric.

So let me ask you: do you know where your customers are at in their retirement journey? Do you know what tools they need? What prompts are required along the way to ensure they are making the most of their wealth? Do you look across your industry and other industries to benchmark what good customer-centric service can look like? If you don’t, you still have work to do.

I am sometimes asked, ‘what does good look like?’ from what we see as a regulator. And it's a fair question, and just like last year, I think it’s time to put a bit of hope in the room of my stern speech. So, a few examples of good practice this year:

• This year, we’re seeing that trustees who are further along in their journey of knowing their members are using those insights to drive better member outcomes. We talk of cohorts and we see cohorts in the new principles. One trustee identified a cohort of their members that spoke a particular dialect from Papua New Guinea and they created superannuation guides in this language to support that cohort.
• We’re also seeing this year that trustees are getting creative to better understand their member’s behaviour. For example, one trustee partnered with a bank to learn about their members’ spending patterns in retirement – remember what I said before about looking outside and being customer-centric?
• Finally, we are seeing some trustees taking a data-driven approach to determining the most effective communication channels for members. They’re mindful of member communication preferences – online is easy, but it may not always be the most effective. The trustees doing this better are tracking cost per click on their retirement communications, which not only helps with meeting their Best Financial Interest Duty (BFID) but helps on further research and further cases to understand how to improve member communications and campaigns.

We’ll publish our full findings on this next month, but I encourage you to look outward to learn how you can better serve your customers.

Of course, you can also expect us to keep following up and following through to ensure trustees are meeting their obligations under the covenant – particularly when it comes to First Nations members.

One final insight I’d like to share with you from our upcoming review is that RSE licensees failed to adequately consider their First Nations members in their communications. While some reported participating in superannuation working groups aimed at supporting First Nations members, this failed to translate to their retirement communications. So my question to you is: how can you break down silos within your organisation to ensure better communications with all your members?

Conclusion

If there’s a message to leave with you with today, it’s that getting retirement and member services right isn’t just good for your members, your customers – it’s good for business too.

Three years into the Retirement Income Covenant, we are already seeing a big divide in how trustees are serving their customers. Whilst there is no pattern to this divide in terms of size or shape of fund, the one thing that is clear is the ones who are doing it better are benefiting.

So my challenge to you all today is to step up, not step back. The retirement challenge is great – but so is the opportunity. Superannuation might be compulsory, but it’s also got to be competitive – don't get left behind.

I’m looking forward to the discussion.

[1] Trusting trustees with our $4 trillion in superannuation | ASIC

[2] 2025 Pulse Check to be released later this year

[3] Retirement and Retirement Intentions, Australia, 2022-23 financial year | Australian Bureau of Statistics

[4] Moneysmart research, 2025

[5] IBid

[6] Conexus and Core Data Best Possible Retirement report 2025

[7] Best practice principles – superannuation retirement income solutions - Consult hub

[8] Retirement Reporting Framework - Consult hub

[9] A guide to ‘good’: delivering better retirement outcomes and member services for Australians | ASIC