Iress and Anchorage Capital Partners among those looking to sell superannuation admin services
The financial services sector is awash with businesses for sale that provide administration services to superannuation funds.
Iress has deemed its superannuation fund unit non-core and under review, while Anchorage Capital Partners is selling its business GBST through Jefferies. Also shopped around in recent times is Bravura.
Cbus put a spotlight on superannuation fund administration when chief executive Kristian Fok told a parliamentary inquiry that a delay in death and disability payments emanated from its administrator, which is Link Administration Holdings.
Link was sold to Japan’s Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group last year for $1.2bn.
Iress has also been in the spotlight for underpaying hundreds of ESS Super pensioners and other failures related to member payments.
ESSSuper, the $37bn super fund for Victorian government and emergency services workers, outsourced some of its admin services to Iress in 2019 and handed full admin control to the company in early 2022.
The super fund is now suing Iress and its subsidiary Financial Synergy Holdings, alleging breaches of contract and misrepresentations by the software provider.
Industry sources say that their dilemma is that the payments for providing the services are limited, but the technology and IT systems needed to carry out the work are expensive and in constant need of upgrading.
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