APRA’s results showed 69 MySuper products have been assessed, with at least five years of performance history against the objective benchmark. A total of five products failed to meet the objective benchmark, including four that failed for the second time.
Westpac Group Plan MySuper was the new addition to APRA’s red list this year, while Australian Catholic Superannuation and Retirement Fund's LifetimeOne, EISS Super's MySuper (Balanced), BT Super's MySuper and AMG Super remained on the list for a second year.
In a statement issued by Westpac, it said: "For Lifestage products like those offered by BT as a part of the Westpac Group Plan, the annual performance assessment takes into account the asset-weighted performance of all Lifestage investment options collectively to calculate a single performance return. The combined eight-year performance of our Westpac Group Plan MySuper product failed the annual performance assessment."
According to APRA, a further five products that failed last year’s performance test passed this year.
“Pleasingly, almost 96 per cent of MySuper superannuation members are now in a performing MySuper product, equating to 13.1 million member accounts,” said APRA member, Margaret Cole.
“Equally positive is that the performance test has contributed to over 5.1 million MySuper members (just over 38 per cent) now paying lower fees than they were last year.
“This is the culmination of APRA’s intensified supervisory approach, driving trustees to take meaningful action to improve member outcomes. APRA encourages superannuation trustees to continue to explore ways to improve the efficiency of their MySuper products,” Ms Cole said.
Trustees of the one product that failed for the first time are expected to notify their members of the result by 28 September, while the four repeat failures are now closed to members.
Of those four products, three plan to exit the industry with plans said to underway for their over 500,000 members to transfer to new MySuper products before the 2023 performance test.
“APRA will be engaging with these trustees to ensure that members achieve better outcomes as quickly and safely as possible,” she said.
A total of 13 super funds failed the inaugural performance test in 2021, of which 10 have either merged or exited the industry.
Last month, the government announced a review of the Your Future, Your Super laws and a pause of the test extension beyond MySuper products for 12 months.
BT confirms merger
In a statement emailed to InvestorDaily following APRA's announcement, a BT spokesperson said: “We are disappointed with this outcome and have recently announced our intention to merge the BT Personal and Corporate superannuation funds with Mercer Super."
Noting that while BT had "worked hard" to improve member outcomes, this result was mainly due to "some periods of underperformance, particularly in the 2014-15 financial year and in last year’s turbulent global markets".
"We continue to work in our members’ best financial interests and by being part of a much larger Mercer fund BT members will have the potential to benefit from stronger performance, lower fees with most members to see a fee reduction of around 25 per cent off standard fees, more investment choice and broader members services.”
Maja Garaca Djurdjevic
Maja's career in journalism spans well over a decade across finance, business and politics. Now an experienced editor and reporter across all elements of the financial services sector, prior to joining Momentum Media, Maja reported for several established news outlets in Southeast Europe, scrutinising key processes in post-conflict societies.
