The Centre For International Finance & Regulation (CIFR) has just announced the funding for the second round of research projects, including one proposal being conducted by Mr Taxman on the monitoring and performance attributes of superannuation funds in Australia.
Following the most recent funding round, CIFR’s research program grows to 24 projects. More of Australia’s leading academics are supported in their investigation of fundamental finance sector issues.
Once again the calibre of each submission was extremely high, providing for a highly competitive process. Projects were assessed and selected according to a rigorous process involving extensive consultations with academics, regulatory, policy and industry assessors.
The eleven research projects funded this round will investigate a range of issues including:
Stock market rules, regulations and reactions to information with respect to Basel II bank reports, rights issues and placements, cross listed stocks and exchange consolidations;
The monitoring and performance attributes of superannuation funds with specific attention to the identification of systemic risks;
The examination of systemic risks in financial and real sectors, an exploration of financial stability and competition, analysis of regulatory measures imposed following the Global Financial Crisis and an investigation of asset impairment judgements by financial managers.
Monitoring and performance attributes of superannuation funds in Australia - Project Summary
Despite self-managed superannuation funds (SMSF's) now accounting for one-third of Australia's 1.4 trillion retirement industry, there has been little empirical research conducted on them to date. Using proprietary data from the Australia Taxation Office (ATO) and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), our research proposal aims to address this lack of enquiry.
Conducted over the next year, our project has two objectives. Firstly, we plan on documenting the investment performance, asset allocation and cost structure of all APRA funds and a large sample of SMSF's. This research will be first study of the entire Australian superannuation fund industry that incorporates the previously excluded small superannuation fund segment.
Secondly, owing to the unique attributes associated with the experimental setting, we plan to investigate audit pricing within Australian superannuation funds. We aim to apply the well specified audit fee model to two different styles of funds - SMSFs (being large in number but smaller in size) and APRA-regulated funds (being smaller in number, yet larger in size). These contrasting attributes offer interesting, testable opportunities.
Team Leader:
Researchers:
Dr Bruce Arnold | Acting Head, Research Department, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
Mr Adrian Raftery | UTS Business School, Accounting Discipline Group, University of Technology, Sydney