Dear Australian Prudential Regulation Authority,

The National Australia Bank Group Superannuation Fund A was established by a Trust Deed executed on 12 December 1985.

Recital A of the Trust Deed was as follows:
“The Bank has decided to establish and maintain a fund to be known as “The National Australia Bank Group Superannuation Fund A” solely for the purpose of providing superannuation benefits of the kind set out in this Deed for certain of its employees and for certain employes of any Associated Company and their dependents in the circumstances set out in this Deed.”

On 28 April 2006 APRA registered this not-for-profit corporate fund with registration number R1005103.

The Trustee in 2006 was National Australia Bank Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd with RSE licence Number L0001953.

The trustee had an equal-representation board governance structure.

For the year ending 30 June 2014 this trustee was still the trustee of the fund.

During the following year, there was a change of trustee to PFS Nominees Pty Ltd and the fund status was changed from “not-for-profit” to “for-profit” status.

PFS Nominees Pty Ltd had a non-equal representation board governance structure.

The documents I seek are any correspondence between either trustee and APRA related to the change in trustee from National Australia Bank Superannuation Fund Pty Ltd to PFS Nominees Pty Ltd and the change in fund status from “not-for-profit” to “for-profit”.

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney

Dear Freedom of Information,

Thank you for this acknowledgement

Yours sincerely,

Phillip Sweeney

Dear Freedom of Information,

I agree with your request for a 10 day extension period.

Yours sincerely,

Phillip Sweeney

Dear Australian Prudential Regulation Authority,

Please pass this on to the person who conducts Freedom of Information reviews.

I am writing to request an internal review of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority's handling of my FOI request 'Change of Status of NAB Staff Super Fund to "For-Profit"'.

Both the Commonwealth Bank and the ANZ Bank have retained standalone "not-for-profit" staff superannuation schemes which provide high returns for fund members

APRA's own data reveals that the 10 years average return to 30 June 2019 is 8.2% for the Commonwealth Bank staff fund and 8.0% for the ANZ Staff fund.

The MLC Superannuation fund, which is a NAB owned "for-profit" fund returned only 6.8%

It is a matter of public interest as to why APRA would have approved the change of status of the NAB staff superannuation fund from "not-for-profit" to "for-profit" - a change that would not be in the best interests of the members of the NAB staff superannuation fund.

It is a matter of public interest that in a COMPULSORY superannuation system such a change in fund status would have been approved by APRA.

Access must generally be given to a conditionally exempt document unless it would be contrary to the public interest.

It is a matter of public interest as to why staff of the Commonwealth Bank and ANZ Bank have the benefit of being members of top-performing superannuation funds which provide a high degree of transparency as to their administration, whereas APRA approved the change in status of the NAB staff superannuation fund so that there would be a complete lack of transparency as to the administration of the staff fund and underperformance due to profit-taking from members' accounts.

It is also a matter of public interest in that the trustee of the NAB Staff Superannuation fund {since 1 July 2016} is NULIS Nominees (Australia) Ltd that featured at the Hayne Royal Commission and where the conduct of the previous Chairman of NULIS was extensively covered in the media.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-08-08/n...

In a "for-profit" fund there is a conflict of interest between the interests of shareholders in the parent company and fund members that leads to such misconduct as "Fees For No Service" which is absent in "not-for-profit" superannuation funds.

This conflict of interest was pointed out to Nichole Smith, the previous Chairman of NULIS, during her testimony at the Hayne Royal Commission.

A full history of my FOI request and all correspondence is available on the Internet at this address: https://www.righttoknow.org.au/request/c...

Yours faithfully,

Phillip Sweeney