This Month
Australia’s most complained about super funds revealed
Embattled construction industry fund Cbus topped the list of major funds, new data shows, but complaints across the sector jumped last financial year.
- Hannah Wootton
ASIC warns directors could be on hook for super customer failures
The warning came as Cbus CEO Kristian Fok apologised to members but defended the fund’s deep financial links to the CFMEU.
- Hannah Wootton
Systemic customer failings in super, says ASIC
The opposition has accused the Albanese government of looking after super funds rather than their members, as ASIC warns more prosecutions are afoot.
- Hannah Wootton
AustralianSuper axes CEO of mobile towers biz
Street Talk understands AustralianSuper has sent Cameron Evans packing three years after he named to the top job.
- Sarah Thompson, Kanika Sood and Emma Rapaport
October
Exec pay at IFM Investors jumps 48pc despite profit fall
The infrastructure powerhouse also recorded broadly flat revenue last financial year, but its key management personnel salary bill still soared.
- Hannah Wootton
Swan accuses Cbus critics of ‘raw politics’ and ‘deliberate damage’
The former treasurer said industry funds were under attack from critics jealous of their success.
- Hannah Wootton
APRA reveals $10.8b spending by super funds but rules out blacklists
The regulator considered a blanket ban on funds making payments to unions or advertisers, but decided against it.
- Hannah Wootton
- Exclusive
- Governance
Big super pushes boards on culture after WiseTech, MinRes dramas
Industry superannuation funds are ramping up their focus on the culture of the companies they invest in as scandals wipe billions off corporate valuations.
- Updated
- Fiona Buffini and Hannah Wootton
APRA to ‘test the limits’ of law on super funds that fudge expenses
The warning is part of a broad crackdown on funds’ spending big on things that may not be in their members’ best financial interests, such as travel and entertainment.
- Hannah Wootton
Super bosses warned on travel and entertainment spending
APRA says it has observed questionable expenditure by funds where the benefit to members was not immediately apparent.
- Hannah Wootton
Big super’s executive gender pay gap revealed
Analysis by The Australian Financial Review also shows who the highest-paid superannuation bosses were last year.
- Hannah Wootton
Stick to super returns, don’t cave to ‘political interference’: Weaven
Garry Weaven says APRA shouldn’t give in to “bastardised political interference” in governance and performance testing of high-performing industry funds.
- Hannah Wootton
Revealed: Which super fund directors earn the most
Payments to directors at one fund outstripped those of comparable size by more than half a million dollars, despite delivering worse returns than most of their rivals, analysis by AFR Weekend shows.
- Hannah Wootton
AustralianSuper goes big in New York searching for prime investments
The country’s largest industry superannuation fund has moved two executives to the United States and made a string of high-level appointments.
- Hannah Wootton
September
Big super says cutting bank investments will hurt members
“Without funding from super funds, banks would be much more dependent on volatile foreign capital,” AustralianSuper chief strategy officer Paula Benson says.
- Hannah Wootton and Lucas Baird
Cbus’ CFMEU fallout ‘shows APRA’s weakness in super oversight’
Super funds get “preferential treatment” compared with banks and insurers, which may leave retirees out of pocket down the track.
- Hannah Wootton
- Exclusive
- Telecommunications
AusSuper’s mobile towers empire slumps deep into the red
The country’s largest superannuation investor was already at odds with its partner, Singtel-owned Optus, over a delay in rolling out network infrastructure.
- Jenny Wiggins
Minister, watchdog put onus on Cbus to decide on controversial directors
Industrial Relations Minister Murray Watt and the prudential watchdog sidestepped any endorsement of union firebrand Paddy Crumlin to the board.
- Hannah Wootton
More CFMEU directors removed from industry super fund boards
The union’s administrator has replaced the two BUSSQ directors with other CFMEU officials.
- Hannah Wootton
August
Building super funds challenge APRA’s CFMEU concerns in court
But Cbus, which was also ordered to review the fitness of its union-appointed directors last week, is standing by its pledge to work with the watchdog.
- Hannah Wootton