The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) plans to improve the collection and reporting of its superannuation fund data with the release of a new industry consultation paper.
The discussion paper, Enhanced APRA superannuation statistics collection, invites comments from the superannuation industry on a range of options for developing improved collections and reports.
While the collection was last reviewed in 2003, the substantial changes that have occurred within the superannuation industry over recent years are driving the need for revised statistical collection and reporting, APRA deputy chairman Ross Jones said.
"The average superannuation fund has become considerably larger and more complex over the past five or more years," Jones said.
"APRA's experience with the data over this time indicates that to better understand both funds and trustees, we need to deepen the statistics collection within each fund."
A number of industry participants have recently called for greater detail in APRA's superannuation statistics and reports, Jones said.
"The proposed enhancements to the statistics collection and reporting would complement the fund level publication to be released later this year," he said.
"Enhanced collections would also assist in APRA's supervision of the industry and provide improved statistics to the Australian Bureau of Statistics to help inform public policy discussions."
The discussion paper follows consultations commenced in November 2008 on plans to produce performance data on individual superannuation funds, which followed a request from Minister for Superannuation and Corporate Law Nick Sherry.
APRA is seeking comment from industry on the proposals by 22 June.
