The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority has increased scrutiny of the performance of the country's superannuation funds.
APRA has refreshed its MySuper product heat map, which was first published last December, to intensify supervision of underperforming super funds. Superannuation fund assets totaled A$2.9 trillion ($2.06 trillion) as of Sept. 30, according to the Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia.
The December update by APRA said 11 of the MySuper products that underperformed the investment benchmarks have exited the industry over the last 12 months.
The association is also now reviewing whether eight trustees may have failed in their obligations to participants, including possible breaches of the market's industry supervision rules, in relation to 10 MySuper funds.
APRA will issue notices requiring information from those trustees in relation to the underperformance of some of their funds and the actions being taken to address it. The regulator will then determine what further action it will take.
Other findings by the heat map include that super funds have achieved A$408 million in fees.
"APRA is committed to improving retirement savings for everyone," Helen Rowell, deputy chairwoman, said in a news release accompanying the heat map. "The MySuper product heat map shines a light on those trustees who are failing their members by charging high fees and not delivering good long-run returns."
