FSC renews default fund campaign

The Financial Services Council (FSC) has sought to leverage comments by Assistant Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, to continue its campaign for key changes to the default funds arena.

Drawing on comments made by Frydenberg at last week's annual conference, the FSC issued a statement claiming the current arrangements were contributing to some Australians paying too much in fees and charges.

The statement from FSC chief executive, Sally Loane said that, currently, some sectors of the superannuation industry were protected under legislation from having to compete for fund members and some consumers did not have the right to choose their own superannuation fund.

Loane said open market competition did not exist in the superannuation industry and reforms were necessary to increase competition and drive down fees.

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"All Australians should have the right to choose the best performing super fund − something that will inject much needed competition in the industry," she said.

"There are few other consumer marketplaces where a limited set of providers enjoy a monopoly while other licensed providers are banned from competing. No fund should be afraid of competition and consumer choice."

Loane said a number of FSC member companies had very low fees in their default "MySuper" options, such as Bendigo MySuper at 0.65 per cent, ANZ MySuper at 0.60 per cent, and AMP MySuper at 0.85 per cent, but were prevented by legislation from competing with industry, corporate, and public sector funds, many of which had higher fees.