Reporting requires internal restructuring, says CCH

Although many super fund boards have been spooked by transformation projects that have failed, increased reporting obligations to the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) require a degree of internal restructuring and a review of third party providers to be effective, according to director, CCH corporate reporting services, Jim Edwards 

“A lot of people have not lifted their heads from what they’re currently doing to see the warning signs, and I think a lot of funds do not fully appreciate the burden that will be placed on them in future,” he said. 

“It really does involve a level of transformation of what they’re currently doing - beyond just implementing a bit of technology, they really need to think about how they’re resourcing it.” 

Edwards said funds had to manage all of their service provider relationships and stipulate their roles in the data collection, dissemination and reporting process in contracts. 

Funds could use the obligations as an opportunity to centralise all of their regulatory reporting requirements, which required an assessment of internal structure. 

“Every single organisation I go to manages the process of disclosure to each of those regulators through a different team and a different process, even though they’re pretty much based on the same sort of data,” he said. 

“Payroll taxes fall off the back of HR, tax reporting falls off the back of finance, Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) reporting falls off the back of someone in corporate secretarial - so there’s a real opportunity for a chief financial officer or chief executive to rationalise the way in which they’re governing their organisations and really look at who’s responsible for each part of the process,” he said.

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