APRA vague on committee chair

Representatives of the Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) taking questions from the industry have been unable to provide clarity on the circumstances in which super fund committees do not need to be chaired by board directors.

In a question and answer session on APRA's view of governance standards at the Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST) fund governance conference, super fund industry delegates sought more information on the circumstances surrounding the requirement for only board directors to chair committees in super funds.

However, APRA general manager for supervisory support division Greg Brunner and senior manager Gordon Walker were unable to provide specific examples under which that requirement would not apply, frequently responding to questions with "it depends".

AIST has made a submission urging APRA to be more flexible about who can hold the chair position on key committees, saying that the requirement may not be in the best interest of beneficiaries.

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In response to an audience question on whether an individual claims committee needed to have a director chair, Walker said he couldn't give a definite answer, and it depended on the claims, and the sort of claims they received.

In response to a question from the moderator on what committees would be excluded from the requirement, Walker said that circumstances would dictate the response, and it depended on the mandate given to the committee.

"We thought of examples, and all we could come up with was the Christmas party committee or something along those lines," he said.

APRA expected most board committees to need a director as chair, Walker said.