swimECMedia ReleasesMedia Release 8 July 2003

Media Release 8 July 2003

ATO adoption of SuperEC standards major step on road to greater efficiency and cost savings

The Australian Taxation Office is to be congratulated for its adoption of SuperEC messaging standards for the exchange of electronic information between the superannuation industry and the ATO, according to the SuperEC Council.

"This means reduced costs and more efficient superannuation transactions," said Dr Michaela Anderson, Director of Policy & Research at ASFA, and a member of the SuperEC Council.

"The ATO's support for, and adoption of the SuperEC standards has significant benefits for both parties and sets a clear direction for the superannuation industry as it considers future electronic commerce developments," Dr Anderson said.

The standards will be adopted for remittance advices, recovery notices, payment variation advices and EFT payments variations. Use of these standards will allow a greater number of electronic transactions within the superannuation industry, and reduce the manual workload.

The next stage of the process, the SuperEC industry Standards for contributions rollovers and transfers, which have recently been audited for completeness, will be publicly released on 18 August 2003.

From that date, they will be available free of charge through http://www.superec.org.

These Standards will cover the following high cost, high volume superannuation transactions:

• Registration of a contributing employer with a superannuation fund and maintenance of their details
• Registration of employees/members with a superannuation entity and maintenance of their details
• Contributions to superannuation funds
• Rollovers between superannuation entities
• Bulk Transfer between superannuation funds.

"Publication of these Standards will be a major step towards achieving significant cost reductions in the superannuation industry. Adoption of the Standards will allow super funds to deliver both higher benefits (through reduced costs) and improved service to fund members," said Richard Gilbert, CEO of IFSA, and Chair of the SuperEC Council.

The SuperEC Council is currently giving consideration to joining with other similar bodies to develop and promote messaging standards for the wider wealth management industry.

The SuperEC Council is the governing body of a super industry consortium, and is made up of ASFA (The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia), IFSA (The Investment and Financial Services Association) and TAPS (The Association of Payroll Specialists).

Further information:
Dr Michaela Anderson on 0414 725 900
Richard Gilbert on 02 9299 3022 or 0417 247 998

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