ASIC to receive $10m in FY27 to improve MIS supervision

The government will provide the market watchdog $10.3 million in the next financial year to enhance its ability to utilise data in its supervision of managed investment schemes.

It comes as the government is providing $17.8 million over four years from FY27 to strengthen governance requirements, supervision and enforcement in relation to managed investment schemes.

Additionally, the Office of the Australian Auditing and Assurance Standards Board and the Treasury will receive $7.6 million over four years from 2026-27 (and $1.4 million per year ongoing) consulting publicly on new data collection powers in relation to managed investment schemes.

ASIC will partially meet the cost of this measure through cost recovery.

It comes as the government launched a review to focus on governance and oversight of registered MISs used by retail investors following the collapses of First Guardian and Shield Master Funds, where over $1 billion of retirement savings were lost.

The Super Members Council (SMC) welcomed the decision and highlighted the need for more consumer safety in super following the devastating collapses.

"Overall, this is a steady as she goes budget for super, with a handful of modest but important new investments to boost oversight of investment schemes like those in the Shield and First Guardian collapses," SMC chief executive Misha Schubert said.

"It's also crucial that the government fast-track long-promised reforms to help Australians to get more safe guidance and advice from their own super fund - those tools are crucial to keep consumers safe from predatory social media clickbait ads like those that targeted the Shield and First Guardian victims."

She also urged the government to swiftly act on other measures and reforms, including the super performance test and ATO's target to facilitate unpaid super, which is costing Australians close to $6 billion per year.

The consultation for the performance test commenced last week, which was well-received by the industry.

"The new payday super laws from 1 July will mean that for the first time, the ATO will soon have real-time visibility on which workers have been unpaid or underpaid super every single pay cycle. The government must set the ATO bold targets to swiftly recover that money owed to everyday working Australians," she added.

Meanwhile, the government will also provide $86.3 million over four years from July 1 to deliver Phase 2 of the Counter Fraud Strategy, which includes a focus on live monitoring for "high-risk" super changes.

The funding for the strategy will also extend to an ongoing fund per year of $9.7 million from 2030-31.

The proposal will enhance the ATO's ability to detect and prevent fraud in real time and provide additional fraud protections for individuals, including the live monitoring for high-risk super changes.

Existing powers will also be expanded to include jointly held assets in circumstances where such arrangements are being used to frustrate recovery actions.

The ATO will undertake additional targeted compliance activities over the two years from 2026/27 to further address fraud in the system, including in relation to the research and development tax incentive, which will increase receipts by $217.8 million and increase payments by $72.9 million over the five years from FY26.

The ATO will partially meet the cost of this measure from within existing resources.