BT Super sees 19% FUM growth

BT Super has seen funds under administration (FUA) grow 19% to $45 billion, while Westpac has acknowledged increased scrutiny of the performance of its MySuper products.

In an update to the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) by Westpac, the bank said it had continued to work on enhancement of member outcomes and accelerating its remediation programs in its superannuation business.

“Two BT MySuper products (AESA MySuper and BT Super MySuper) failed the annual MySuper performance test for the year ended 30 June, 2021, and the BT trustee has notified relevant members of this outcome,” it said.

“If those BT products also fail the next annual performance test, the BT trustee will be precluded from accepting new MySuper members.”

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Westpac noted the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) had increased supervisory focus on superannuation providers when it came to member outcomes.

“Westpac’s BT superannuation entity trustee has been responding to requests for information from APRA in relation to comparative underperformance of certain MySuper products, having regard to APRA’s MySuper ‘heat maps’,” it said.

“With increased regulatory focus on superannuation, including a number of inquiries and investigation into BT’s superannuation business, further issues requiring attention may be identified.”

Westpac said it was aware of media reports and “other publicly available material” that other class actions against were being investigated.

“In July 2020, a law firm publicly stated that it intends to commence a class action against BTFM [BT Funds Management] alleging that since 2014, BTFM did not act in the best interests of members of certain superannuation funds when obtaining group insurance policies,” it said.

“In August 2020, another law firm announced it was investing claims on behalf of persons who in the past six years acquired, renewed or continued to hold a financial product (including life insurance) on the advice or recommendation of a financial adviser from Magnitude Group, Securitor Financial Group or Westpac Banking Corporation.

“Westpac has not been served with a claim in relation to either of these matters and has no information about the proposed claims beyond the public statements issue by the law firms involved.”

It said $0.1 billion in early super release payments had been made, while net flows excluding pensions and early release of super increased by 134% from the previous year to $3.8 billion.

According to the ‘Plan For Life Platform Wrap Admin Report’ BT led in market share with 18.8%, as of June 2021 excluding corporate super.

Funds administered by the BT Investment Solutions (BTIS) arm increased 16% to $45 billion.

Overall, BT Panorama FUM increased 235% to $105 billion, compared to September 2020 following platform migrations and organic growth.

The migration of customers from BT Wrap to Panorama had been completed in July and there was now over 6,000 active users on the Panorama platform.