Super funds must improve reporting, audits: ASIC

Registrable superannuation entities (RSEs) must do more to ensure asset valuations in financial reports are reliable and improve disclosure of sponsorship and advertising expenses.

- Jamie Williamson

Those are two key outcomes of an ASIC review into the financial reporting and audit of super funds.

The regulator said a lack of consistency in categorising unlisted investments makes it difficult to compare investments across RSE financial reports, or to understand how reliable the valuations included are.

ASIC added that its review of audit files found auditors need to do more to obtain sufficient evidence to provide reasonable assurance about the valuations used.

"We found that given the size of RSEs, auditors adopted high levels of materiality which can result in less audit work being undertaken. Auditors also did not adequately challenge the valuations provided by external fund managers," ASIC said.

"This could undermine member confidence in the accuracy of financial information about their superannuation fund."