This paper summarizes views on the superannuation system and its regulation collected through interviews of fund executives. While the majority of interviewees saw the superannuation system as working relatively well, some areas of concern were detected. Issues raised relate to: certain aspects...

We interview Australian fund executives about how their organisations responded to MySuper, a regulatory framework for default retirement savings funds that providers were required to have in place by the beginning of 2014. In addition to providing an account of the influences on product design...

The number of self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) has grown at more than 5% p.a. over the past five years. The net growth rate consists of 7% new SMSFs and 2% closures. More than 570,000 SMSFs now serve over one million members but little is known about the experiences of members. We...

Self-managed superannuation funds (SMSFs) – small retirement savings funds with four or fewer members – now manage almost one third of retirement savings in Australia, and serve over one million members. The number of SMSFs has increased to more than half a million in two decades. Yet little...

We combine survey data from retirement plan members with information from interviews with plan executives to get both perspectives on who accepts the default plan and default investment option and why. We use a natural experiment in default construction where a new regulatory framework required...

The increasingly intertwined banking and insurance sectors have lead to calls for stronger regulatory oversight of the insurance industry as potentially systemically risky. Ultimately systemic risk impacts the real economy, and this paper measures the risk via interconnectedness of the banking,...

We provide empirical evidence on the degree of systemic risk in Australia before, during and after the Global Financial Crisis. We calculate a daily index of systemic risk from 2004 to 2013 in order to understand how real economy firms influence the outcomes for the rest of the economy. This is...

We develop a theoretical and empirical framework to model the international connections between financial institutions and sovereign debt markets. By allowing for both good and poor returns on the investments of financial institutions in real economy firms and the potential for haircuts in...