DST Global Solutions sales director Adam Ratner says some funds have taken the “tactical” decision to delay the implementation of automation processes until the October deadline has been met.
The news comes after the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) rapped trustees over the knuckles in its ‘Data integrity in superannuation’ report, urging them to “validate, correct, cleanse and assess the ongoing quality of data”.
Superannuation funds have a “good way to go” and have only given “poor” attention to data integrity, which could affect members’ benefits, according to the report.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Mr Ratner said the collection and classification of data posed a huge challenge to the industry.
In order to meet the first APRA reporting deadline in October, some funds are taking a “tactical approach” by using spreadsheets or manually accessing data from databases to construct reports, he said.
“Others are taking a more strategic approach by implementing an automated solution to handle the first reports and ongoing future reports,” said Mr Ratner.
“We believe those taking a tactical approach are exposing their members to operational risk and inaccurate data, which is entirely what this whole process is actually about – to take that out,” he said.
Instead, superannuation funds should be focusing all of their efforts on automation, said Mr Ratner.
“The new data rules are complex and they are ongoing obligations and they can’t be met by one person filling out spreadsheets,” he said.
Software and systems need to be put in place that can perform functions consistently in a large operation, he added.
“The full impact of consolidating the reports will not be felt until the first reports are due; however, we believe those who are looking to adopt a strategic approach are more likely to provide full data integrity and meet APRA’s deadlines,” said Mr Ratner.
APRA announced last week that the reporting requirements for SuperStream have been delayed until 2014, but the first D2A (‘Direct to APRA’) quarterly report remains due in October of this year.
