Today APRA and ASIC will appear before the Senate Inquiry into the Government’s COVID response and Labor will demand answers to the ongoing concerns about security and fraud with the government’s early access superannuation scheme.
 
In an email dated 20 May the ATO and APRA advised superannuation trustees that the ATO tool “SuperMatch has been disconnected to all funds until such time as the superannuation industry can work with the ATO to provide increased certainty that they have mitigated the risk of weak online account creation controls”.  
 
Under the scheme the ATO conducts a robo assessment process and directs superannuation trustees to release funds to members. These security risks were not raised before the introduction of the early release scheme.

Supermatch is the primary tool that superannuation trustees use to assist consumers to consolidate their accounts. It enables superannuation trustees and other entities authorised by the trustee to obtain a list from the ATO of active super fund accounts, including lost member accounts and ATO-held monies, that belong to their members or clients.
 
Consolidating multiple accounts has been stated as a key priority for the Government but no public announcement has been made about the suspension of SuperMatch and no explanation appears on the ATO’s website.
 
The email advises trustees “in the interest of protecting super funds and individuals the ATO, APRA, ASIC and AUSTRAC will be engaging with the industry this week to discuss options for how fund access to SuperMatch can be re-established”.
 
Labor has raised concerns that the government’s robo-release early access scheme could create a honey pot for shonks and fraudsters and they must come clean with the Australian people about the extent of this fraud.
 
The Government have placed the hard-earned savings of Australians at risk because they refused to listen to advice. If you want to implement major reforms quickly you need to listen to stakeholders.
 
We expect a full explanation from both the regularors and Government Ministers on the extent and the nature of the fraud in the robo-release early access scheme.
 
Background
 
In early May the Government was forced to temporarily freeze the scheme because of fraud. The AFP have still not ruled out the involvement of organised and offshore crime.
 
Government Ministers are also yet to reveal how many fraudulent claims have been made, or what the Government is doing to compensate victims after the ATO directed their super fund to make a payment to a fraudulent account.
 
Last week it was reported that there is an alarming trend of super funds being plunged directly into online gambling. If true, the embattled Government scheme may be boosting the profits of dodgy overseas gambling businesses, instead of stimulating the economy and addressing real hardship cases.