Policy & Regulation

Exposure Draft of the proposed Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Amendment (Annual performance assessments—Faith-based products) Regulations 2022: FBPs from the Australian Treasury.

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment’s (MBIE) consultation on a legislative response to Modern Slavery and Worker Exploitation, Forced Labour, People Trafficking and Slavery.

Australian Treasury’s consultation on proposed changes to the performance test for faith-based superannuation products.

RIAA and a coalition of industry groups support the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) proposal for a global baseline for sustainability disclosures standards.

The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) sought comment on its draft general sustainability-related financial disclosures standard.

The Australian Accounting Standards Board (AASB) consulted on how the International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) proposed sustainability standards should be implemented in Australia.

RIAA, the Value Reporting Foundation (VRF), Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Aotearoa New Zealand External Reporting Board (XRB) take a closer look at the new International Sustainability Standards Board’s (ISSB) draft standards for sustainability disclosures.In this RIAA member-only event, key representatives from the VRF, ASIC, XRB and RIAA speak about:

The Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA) has congratulated the incoming Government of Australia, and has called for the establishment of a national sustainable finance strategy which can unlock investment opportunities and underpin strong action on climate change and other key societal issues. “From climate change to housing affordability to gender equality, many of the issues the electorate has deemed important at this election mirror the big issues which investors are pushing for action on,” said RIAA CEO Simon O’Connor. RIAA is calling on the Government to establish a whole of government approach to embedding sustainability into the financial system, to underpin a strong and prosperous economy, to position Australian competitively and to help address local and global challenges.

The Australian Government’s announcement that superannuation funds will be required to disclose their holdings from 31 March 2022 has been welcomed by the Responsible Investment Association Australasia (RIAA). Under the new regulations, super funds will be required to disclose information about the identity, value and weightings of their investments, with portfolio holdings disclosure to occur every six months thereafter. “RIAA is supportive of and welcomes the introduction of mandatory portfolio holdings disclosure for super funds. We have advocated for many years that portfolio holdings disclosure is a critical element of transparency and accountability for super fund members and beneficiaries,” said RIAA CEO Simon O’Connor. “Disappointingly though, super funds will not be required to disclose the holdings of funds that are managed externally. Given almost three-quarters of super funds use external managers for over 90% of their assets, we would have expected the requirements to include these underlying holdings.”

The Chartered Financial Accountants (CFA) Institute developed voluntary, global industry standards, the CFA Institute ESG Disclosure Standards for Investment Products.