AustralianSuper hit with $27m fine | Australian Markets

The Federal Courtroom has handed Australia’s greatest industry tremendous fund, AustralianSuper, a $27 million advantageous for its failure to tell members of duplicate accounts.

Federal Courtroom Justice Lisa Hespe labelled the compliance breach – prosecuted by regulator ASIC – as “serious and highly concerning”.

The Courtroom discovered the tremendous supplier had, for a number of years, did not promptly determine and merge hundreds of members recognized as having a number of accounts – a requirement beneath the Superannuation Trade (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act).

Moreover, Justice Hespe wrote in her judgement, AusSuper “did not exercise, in relation to the interests of that beneficiary, the same degree of care, skill and diligence as a prudent superannuation trustee would have exercised” as required beneath the SIS Act.

Extra than 42,000 AusSuper account holders had been affected between 2019 and 2023, the Courtroom discovered.

“AustralianSuper is Australia’s largest industry superannuation fund,” Justice Hespe stated in her judgment.

“It is inexcusable for it to not have had processes and systems in place to ensure compliance with a specific legislative requirement.”

She added: “Its systems also failed to ensure that repeated human errors in relation to the failure to merge the multiple accounts were prevented or promptly identified and corrected.”

“Failures of this type involving a failure to have processes and procedures in place to make people accountable and accountable for making certain regulatory obligations are complied with warrant substantial penalties.

“A failure to put in place systems and processes to ensure duties are performed efficiently, honestly and fairly and that trustees act in the best financial interests of the members cannot be regarded as a commercially acceptable option.”

AustralianSuper’s chief govt Paul Schroder expressed remorse for the breach, admitting that the tremendous fund’s course of “wasn’t comprehensive enough”. He added that the company has since compensated affected members.

“Multiple member accounts are a problem across our industry and for several years our process wasn’t comprehensive enough to meet our obligations to members,” Schroder stated in a assertion.

“We’ve fixed that now and we continue to review and improve our services, so we provide members with the support and guidance they expect and deserve.”

Along with the $27 million advantageous, the Courtroom has ordered AustralianSuper to pay ASIC’s prices up to $500,000.