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Access to early super resumes
Up to 150 people have lost almost $120,000 through identity theft when withdrawing funds from their super accounts according to the Australian Federal Police.
Earlier this month the Australian Tax Office (ATO) put a temporary hold on early access to superannuation claims while the alleged frauds were being investigated, but the processing of claims has now been resumed.
Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar says a small number of third parties who could be susceptible to criminal activity have been identified and the ATO is working with them to improve security.
“Australians can have confidence in the security measures the ATO has in place to protect the integrity of the early release of superannuation scheme,” Mr Sukkar says. He warns fresh cyberattacks are likely and advises never to divulge your MyGov details to anyone, including your tax agent. He declined to name which super funds have been targeted.
APRA reported that between 20 April and 10 May more than 1.3 million Australians had applied to withdraw $9 billion from their super fund accounts as a buffer against the coronavirus economic downturn. The average payment has been $7,546 and 94% of payments were made within five business days.
AustralianSuper, Hostplus, Sunsuper and REST all have paid out more than 100,000 applications each, and all paid out at least 95% of applications within five business days. The slowest funds to pay out applications included Intrust and Asgard, where more than 50% of applications took six to nine business days to pay out.
ASIC defers mortgage broker reforms
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) will postpone the start date of the mortgage broker reforms until January 2021 due to the economic impact of COVID-19.
The regulator announced the changes this month saying it would defer the commencement date of the mortgage broker best interest duty and renumeration reforms for at least six months, and its design and distribution obligations until October 2021.
All measures have already been legislated by Parliament in response to the Royal Commission into Misconduct in the Banking, Superannuation and Financial Services Industry, and were originally going to commence 1 July 2020. The design and distribution obligations were set to begin on 5 April 2021.
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