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INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this information paper is to provide information on the industry consultation process for new superannuation data reporting standards for registrable superannuation entity (RSE) licensees in relation to data collected by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) for use by the ABS.

The ABS uses superannuation data submitted to APRA under the Financial Sector (Collection of Data) Act 2001 for the compilation the Australian National Accounts and related statistics which are widely used in government economic policy and business decision making. In line with the Government's red tape reduction objective, the aim of collaboration between APRA and the ABS is to simplify business-to-government reporting in order to collect high quality data at the lowest possible compliance cost.

On July 2013, APRA introduced new reporting standards for the superannuation industry with the aim of meeting APRA's regulatory requirements and supporting the implementation of the Stronger Super reforms. Reporting standards to meet the ABS' statistical requirements have now been developed. The proposed standards would primarily be for use by the ABS and take effect from 1 January 2016.

The ABS is seeking comments on the proposed reporting standards through a process of formal consultation with the superannuation industry. The consultation package was released on 27 January 2015 with final submissions requested by 13 April 2015. The proposed reporting standards, incorporating new reporting forms and instructions, are provided with the consultation package.

The industry consultation package is available on the APRA website here: http://www.apra.gov.au/Super/Pages/superannuation-consultation-packages.aspx


RATIONALE FOR THE PROPOSED REPORTING STANDARDS

The framework for ABS economic statistics centres around two international standards – the System of National Accounts (SNA) and the Balance of Payments Manual (BPM). Both standards have been significantly revised in the past seven years. The proposed reporting standards are designed to comply with these revised international standards by including detailed counterparty and asset class information, and adopting standard SNA and BPM definitions.

The ABS will use data collected under the proposed standards for measuring the contribution of pension funds and the superannuation industry to GDP, to national, sector and industry measures of income, savings and wealth and to indicators of financial exposure and risk. Further, the proposed standards facilitate the production of internationally comparable statistics on the performance of pension funds and superannuation.

The key ABS publications that incorporate APRA superannuation data are:

• Australian System of National Accounts (cat. no. 5204.0) – issued annually;
• Australian National Accounts, Financial Accounts (cat. no. 5232.0) – issued quarterly;
• Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product (cat. no. 5206.0) – issued quarterly; and
• Managed Funds, Australia (cat. no. 5655.0) – issued quarterly.