Superannuation funds are continuing to have to work on appropriate solutions to SuperStream, with the extent of what’s required only now being understood, Bravura Solutions said.
“Initially, the [approach] was, ‘just fix my registry so it will work’. But now they’ve realised they have to listen to a message, translate the message, and have the audit trail and workflow changed,” Bravura Solutions’ global head of product, Darren Stevens, told InvestorDaily.
“It’s a fairly heavy project. Large project teams still don’t understand SuperStream and are trying to work it out,” he said.
SuperStream was introduced as a component of the government’s Stronger Super reforms and aimed to improve back office efficiency of superannuation funds.
“The super funds are trying to work on it, but it’s been a moving feast – some people got on it really early with consulting and have mapped out all the processes and touch points, but others have just started to go through that journey,” Mr Stevens said.
“You start seeing the light bulbs go off when they realise this is a lot more complex than first thought; because it sounds really easy but it’s not. Also, part of the market is doing tactical things and the other is implementing a strategic, long-term solution.”
In October, minister for financial services and superannuation, Bill Shorten, announced the government had agreed to a six-month transition period for the industry to comply with SuperStream reform.
“The government remains committed to mandating electronic contributions from medium and large employers from 1 July 2014. As such, the transition-in period for rollovers will end on 1 January 2014, so that the industry can prepare itself to receive contributions electronically for employers,” Mr Shorten said at the time.
In addition, Mr Stevens said there were concerns around ensuring risk and compliance were managed well by SuperStream solutions, particularly as there was much more emphasis on straight-through processing.
Bravura product marketing manager, Daryl Wright, said there was an early belief SuperStream was a technical problem and only required a translation of XBRL (extensible business reporting language).
“It’s a whole-of-business operation problem – even though it talks about messaging and files, SuperStream implies workflow; you effectively have to put in place digital workplace solutions,” he said.
“The issue is that on the technical side, funds have been struggling because a lot of these guys don’t know how messaging works; a lot of them haven’t touched on workflow-type solutions either, so it’s been a really steep learning curve to get their head around what they have to do. That’s where there’s been a lot of slower uptake.”
Mr Stevens said the reality of the Stronger Super reforms was not about consistent messaging standards, but rather the inevitable and necessary “clean up” of super funds’ back offices.
“This is doing it without making it explicit. It’s forcing companies, and that’s where the savings will be found in the industry,” he said.
Bravura’s Babel software sat in front of registry systems to enable the integration and communication of a number of transfer agency networks for administration. It was launched to the Australian market on 29 November this year.
