Watchdog Orders HESTA Pension to Conduct Review After Outage

Core Viewpoint - Australia's financial regulator, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), has mandated independent reviews for pension fund HESTA due to a significant service disruption that negatively impacted its members [1][2]. Group 1: Regulatory Actions - APRA imposed additional license conditions on HESTA following a "severe" disruption to member services caused by the fund's transition to a new administrative services provider, which lasted approximately seven weeks until June [1][2]. - The regulator identified deficiencies in HESTA's board governance and risk management, indicating that the fund was inadequately prepared to manage the transition effectively [2]. Group 2: Fund Overview - HESTA is one of Australia's largest superannuation funds, managing around A$100 billion (approximately $67 billion) and serving over one million members [2]. - The Australian pension industry, valued at A$4.5 trillion, is under intense scrutiny from regulators regarding various issues, including asset disclosure and customer service [3]. Group 3: Company Response - HESTA's CEO, Debby Blakey, stated that the organization takes the concerns raised by APRA seriously and is fully cooperating with the regulator to address the issues, while also apologizing to affected members for the delays [4].