(Bloomberg) -- Retirement savers in the world’s fastest growing pensions pool can now tap a slew of data to help them assess expenses at Australia’s top funds, amid scrutiny on costs and performance.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority for the first time released data showing expenses for pension funds on Wednesday. Part of the regulator’s push for greater transparency, it spans marketing budgets to executive renumeration and will used to help APRA monitor deficient practices and questionable expenditure.
Australia’s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, notched up total investment expenses of A$700 million ($459 million) in the 2022-23 financial year, the data showed. Australian Retirement Trust, the second biggest, spent A$425 million in that period.
It’s the next step in a concerted push by the watchdog to boost scrutiny on the nation’s A$3.9 trillion pensions industry and force funds to spend less when it identifies a clash with members best interests. It adds to the existing annual performance test, which measures funds’ performance and fees and has weeded out poor performing funds.
“We said from the outset that we would make this information public to deliver greater access and transparency of how trustees spend and invest members money, at both industry aggregate and fund level,” APRA Deputy Chair Margaret Cole said at an industry conference in Sydney on Tuesday, prior to the data’s release.
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