swimECMedia ReleasesMedia Release 4 April 2005

Media Release 4 April 2005

swimEC makes Super payments easier for employers
Industry gears up for Superannuation Choice

The financial services industry's swimEC initiative (superannuation, wealth and investment management electronic commerce) today released a new standard which will smooth the path for the introduction of choice of fund and provide employers with a more user-friendly method of paying employees' compulsory superannuation guarantee contributions.

The Standard for issuing superannuation contribution payments was officially launched by the Minister for Revenue and Assistant Treasurer, the Hon Mal Brough.

The new industry Standard allows employers to electronically transfer super contributions and necessary personal information to the participating superannuation funds. This will be particularly helpful to many employers who may need to pay superannuation contributions to multiple superannuation funds after July 1, 2005 when Superannuation Choice is introduced.

"The new electronic Standard will also increase efficiency in the superannuation and investment markets by streamlining transactions and reducing error rates, while bringing administration costs down," said Philippa Smith, CEO of ASFA (The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia). ASFA currently chairs the swimEC Council.

Those employers who adopt the Standard will find it streamlines the procedure after the employee has made their choice decision, because:

• It has been designed to fit with employers' and payroll providers' existing payment processing systems;
• It offers a standardised payment approach for the information that needs to be collected and forwarded to funds;
• The new payment protocols cater for a wide variety of different types of superannuation and employer groups.

The swimEC initiative aims to promote the development and adoption of industry-wide message standards for electronic commerce in the superannuation, wealth management and investment management environments.

"We hope that ultimately, all super funds and all employers will become participating partners in the new Standard, which will make super contributions as easy as net pays to a bank account", said Richard Gilbert, CEO of IFSA (Investment and Financial Services Association). IFSA is a member of the swimEC Council.

Download Standard: Electronic Superannuation Contribution Payments

Background

The swimEC initiative:

• Creates the standards, relationships and processes for the automated exchange of superannuation and managed funds information across all industry stakeholders.
• Assists members to roll out the finalised standards into production.

The implementation of the swimEC standards enables participants to:

• Increase efficiency by integrating systems with electronic gateways, automatic exchange of data and transfer of funds.
• Eliminate the use of multiple, expensive proprietary interfaces for messages among industry organisations, and allow administrators, payroll providers and SMEs and financial advisers to focus on core business.
• Decrease costs by simplifying internal business processes.
• Decrease costs and improve security by eliminating the likelihood of errors due to inaccurate data entry and use of paper for transfer of information.

The swimEC Council is an unincorporated body of a maximum of 14 members drawn from the following organisations:

• The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia (ASFA) - 4 representatives
• Financial Planning Association of Australia (FPA) - 4 representatives
• Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA) - 4 representatives
• The Association for Payroll Specialists (TAPS) - 1 representative
• Government Regulators - 1 representative

For further information, please contact:

Companies who have signed up to the swimEC Standard for the July 1 Choice start-up are: Colonial First State, SuperChoice Services P/L, an InvestmentLink company and AAS/KAZ. .

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Page Last Modified: 19 April 2005

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