The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) is urging immediate action from superannuation trustees to strengthen anti-scam and fraud practices after its latest review exposed significant gaps in communications for members.
A statement from the regulator revealed that ASIC assessed scams and fraud-related website content across 47 superannuation funds, benchmarking them against comparable website content from the big four banks (ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac).
ASIC said in a statement that it had assessed scams and fraud-related website content across 47 superannuation funds, benchmarking them against comparable website content from the Big Four banks (ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac).
The review focussed on the availability, quality and actionability of anti-scams and fraud content, including by checking the website content for clarity and relevance, prominence on the website and readability. ASIC’s review found banks scored positively in over 80% of criteria assessed, whereas most super funds scored positively against just 40% to 60% of the same criteria.
ASIC Commissioner Simone Constant said, despite being custodians of A$4.3tn ($3.02tn) in retirement savings, the superannuation industry has been slow to respond to evolving scams and fraud risks to members.
“Our latest review of superannuation website content confirmed that super funds often lacked clarity, accessibility and support for scam victims. When benchmarked against other industries, super funds fell short for victims,” Ms Constant said.
“It is time for super trustees to step up and minimise scam and fraud risks to members, which, according to the National Anti-Scam Centre, suffered A$22m in losses from super-related scams in 2025.”
She also noted that super trustees “have a clear and unavoidable responsibility to oversee risk and ensure these emerging threats are identified and managed actively”.
“Yet scam and fraud prevention, detection and response capabilities are still not sufficiently addressing risks to members,” she said.
Concern
Meanwhile, Super Consumers Australia, welcoming the ASIC review, voiced concern that the superannuation industry lags behind other financial services sectors in anti-scam and fraud prevention, even as more Australians will be entering retirement in the next few years with higher balances, where there is less friction in accessing funds.
“This review highlights the need for the Federal Government to urgently add the superannuation sector to the rollout of a national Scams Prevention Framework. After another year of insufficient action, we have no faith the sector will resolve these problems on its own,” said Super Consumers Australia CEO Xavier O’Halloran.
Poor customer service is another major barrier to strong anti-scam and fraud protections, said Super Consumers Australia. For instance, it noted that some of Australia’s largest super funds, such as Australian Super, UniSuper and CBUS, can only be contacted during business hours on weekdays.
Mr O’Halloran said, “People who fear they may have been a victim of a scam or fraud cannot even call their super fund to get help. This is just one in a string of customer service failures by super funds that are leaving Australians exposed to risk.”
As a result, Super Consumers Australia is calling for:
- Inclusion of superannuation in the national Scams Prevention Framework rollout.
- The introduction of government-promised enforceable customer service standards to more effectively prevent and respond to scams and fraud on superannuation.
“It’s time the super sector did its fair share in safeguarding Australia’s financial system and protecting its members’ retirement savings from scams and fraud,” Mr O’Halloran said.