While ASIC said that it “does not ordinarily comment” on the specifics of investigations, it did tell the joint committee on corporations and financial services that it had looked to APRA for help to scrutinise allegations that super fund executives had engaged in insider trading during the March-April market volatility.
“ASIC has also obtained intelligence from APRA under information sharing arrangements. Our work is at a preliminary, information gathering stage, and it is therefore not possible for us to comment on the likely timeline of our work,” ASIC said in answers to questions on notice.
“Generally, for a case relating to a breach of trustee duties, it would take nine months from the date a formal enforcement investigation begins to commence an action for civil or criminal proceedings.”
The regulator also said that it was looking at publicly available information, including answers to questions on notice given by super funds, before it exercised its compulsory information gathering powers.
The allegations were first aired by standing committee on economics chair Tim Wilson, a strident critic of the superannuation system, who accused a number of industry fund executives of moving money within funds at the same time as their unlisted assets were up for revaluation. However, Rest – one of the funds named – thoroughly refuted the allegations, saying the switching behaviour of one of its executives was cumulative and that they had no access to insider information when carrying it out.
