26-265MR ASIC calls out super trustees for blind spots in overseeing member complaints

Its review points to gaps in how trustees identify, escalate and act on issues emerging from complaints, creating risk that recurring problems and member harm go undetected. For compliance and conduct teams, the message is to test whether board and executive oversight has clear visibility of complaint themes, root causes, remediation and third-party administrator performance. Trustees should be able to evidence that complaint data informs product, service and fee decisions, that vulnerable-member signals are escalated, and that remediation is timely and tracked to completion.

ASIC's focus is accountability rather than a new rulebook, so firms should expect scrutiny of governance artefacts, metrics and member outcomes. Immediate actions include a gap assessment against internal dispute resolution and consumer-protection expectations, board-level reporting on complaint trends, sample testing of closed complaints, review of outsourced arrangements, and a remediation plan for identified weaknesses. Firms that strengthen complaints intelligence can reduce conduct and remediation risk, improve member trust and demonstrate a stronger conduct culture.

Those that wait may face tougher supervisory engagement and reputational damage if blind spots are exposed.