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Superannuation funds

Current projects and consultations

This page provides an overview of ASIC’s priorities and projects for the current financial year, current consultations, and information on recent reforms. For information on our strategic priorities and actions over the next four years, see ASIC’s Corporate Plan.

Strategic priorities and projects

Our strategic priorities are to:

  • Improve consumer outcomes – Driving better outcomes for consumers of financial products and services, with a focus on the design and distribution of financial products, predatory sales and lending, financial hardship assistance, insurance claims handling and dispute resolution. 
  • Address financial system climate change risk – Supporting market integrity and protecting consumers and investors, with a focus on climate-rated disclosure, greenwashing, integrity and fairness in energy and carbon credit markets, insurer claims and complaints handling following severe weather events. 
  • Drive better retirement outcomes and member services – Supporting better outcomes for consumers planning for and in retirement, with a focus on improved services for superannuation fund members, driving industry progress towards improving the retirement outcomes and service experience of members through implementation of the retirement income covenant, and compliance by superannuation trustees, providers of managed investments and financial advice. 
  • Advance digital and data resilience and safety – Managing and minimising technology, cyber and data-related risks, with a focus on business, cyber and operational resilience, technology-enabled scams and misconduct, and the poor use of AI. 
  • Drive consistency and transparency across markets and products – Strengthening integrity across markets, with a focus on outcomes in public and private markets, existing and emerging financial products and services, including new market participants. 

Superannuation projects

In 2024-25, ASIC’s key activities in superannuation will focus on: 

  • Reviewing member services – Continuing our multi-year project reviewing industry compliance with laws relevant to contact centres and trustee administration practices. Completing our surveillance on death benefit claims handling. Where we identify poor conduct, we will take enforcement or other regulatory action. We will publish the findings from the review of member services to drive improvement in industry behaviour. 
  • Driving industry progress towards improving retirement outcomes – Monitoring trustees’ implementation of the Retirement Income Covenant. This will help drive compliance with regulatory obligations and improve retirement outcomes for superannuation members. Where we identify poor conduct or practices, we will take enforcement or other regulatory action as appropriate. 
  • Acting against member services failures in the superannuation sector – Taking action to target misconduct, with a particular focus on member experience, including trustees’ provision of services to their members, and harms arising from complaints handling and claims handling. 
  • Acting against misconduct resulting in the inappropriate erosion of superannuation – Taking targeted enforcement action against cold-calling superannuation switching models that result in the inappropriate erosion of members’ superannuation balances. 

Some of ASIC’s cross-sector projects for 2024-25 are also particularly relevant for superannuation trustees including:

  • Implementing the Financial Accountability Regime (FAR) – Working closely with APRA to implement the FAR, which will apply to the superannuation industry from March 2025. 
  • Supporting the Delivering Better Financial Outcomes (DBFO) law reform – Supporting Treasury as they progress the DBFO law reform package, the Australian Government’s response to the Quality of Advice Review. We will continue to provide input into the reforms, and help implement any changes through guidance, legislative instruments and other relevant ASIC documents. 
  • Deterring greenwashing and sustainable finance misconduct – Undertaking ongoing surveillance activity and enforcement action, where necessary, to prevent harms from greenwashing and other sustainable finance-related misconduct. 
  • Monitoring financial reporting and audit firms – Carrying out a surveillance of financial reports of listed entities, unlisted entities that are of public interest, previously grandfathered large proprietary companies and superannuation funds. We will conduct a review of audit files and publish our findings. To improve confidence in audit quality, we will also review audit firms’ adherence to ethical and independence standards. 
  • Acting against non-lodgement of financial reports – Taking action, including enforcement action, against public companies, large proprietary companies, registrable superannuation entities and AFS licensees who do not comply with obligations to lodge financial reports. 
  • Reviewing the growth of private markets – Examining changes in public and private markets, including the significant growth of private markets and the implications for the integrity and efficiency of public markets. 
  • Ensuring the objectives of the reportable situations regime are met – Continuing to conduct a targeted surveillance of licensees with low numbers of reportable situations and, where appropriate, take enforcement action. 

Current consultations

Visit the Consultations page to view ASIC consultation papers currently open for public comment.