Why the Intergenerational Report Matters for Superannuation — and Why the Scrutiny Is Here to Stay

Regulatory reporting capability is increasingly becoming part of the infrastructure required to operate a major financial institution.

The challenge is not merely producing an APRA return on time.

Funds increasingly need data that is consistent across returns, traceable back to source systems, supported by clear definitions and governance, and capable of standing up to regulatory and public scrutiny.

The funds that get the most from regulatory reporting will stop treating the data as something produced only for APRA. The same information can reveal member behaviour, retirement outcomes, costs, product performance and which cohorts need different kinds of support. What starts as a compliance obligation becomes management information.

The Intergenerational Report outlines the importance of our system as it comes of age.

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The key demographic shifts

By 2065–66, Australians will draw almost 6 per cent of GDP from their superannuation each year. The 2026 Intergenerational Report makes it clear that a system built to accumulate savings is about to be judged on how it pays them out.

For three decades, the superannuation story has been about accumulation: rising coverage, higher contributions and bigger balances. The system now holds around $4.8 trillion across 19 million accounts, making it the fourth-largest retirement pool in the world. The next 40 years will be about what happens when that money comes out.

That shift matters well beyond members and funds. It matters for the Budget, for retirees' living standards and for fairness between generations. It also explains the dramatic increase in scrutiny of data reported to APRA. 

The period super was designed for

Australia's population is ageing faster than previously expected. For the first time in an Intergenerational Report, deaths are projected to outnumber births by the 2060s. Life expectancy is projected to reach 89.5 years for women and 86.1 years for men, and the number of Australians aged 85 and over is expected to triple.

Treasury expects super to carry much of that load. The median balance for 65–69 year olds is projected to rise from $204,000 in 2024 to approach $450,000 by the end of the medium term (these are the fuzzy words used in the Intergenarational Report). The share of the population with a retirement-phase account is projected to more than double, from 11.6 to 25.5 per cent. Six per cent of GDP is not a peripheral part of the financial system. It is a major source of household income.

Super now underpins the Budget

Most advanced economies face rising public pension bills as they age. Australia's projection goes the other way. Age Pension spending is projected to fall from 2.3 to 1.8 per cent of GDP, even as the number of people over pension age doubles to around 9 million. By 2060, Australia is projected to have the lowest public pension spending in the OECD as a percentage of GDP.

That outcome has a cost. Super tax concessions are projected to rise from about 1.7 to 2.7 per cent of GDP, overtaking Age Pension spending in the late 2030s. In effect, the Budget has priced in super working as designed.

Super is no longer just an employee benefit or a financial product. It is economic and social infrastructure.

The questions are changing

Once a system matters this much, knowing how much money it holds isn't enough. Government and regulators want to know what members pay in fees and costs, what investment outcomes they receive, how retirees draw down their savings, what happens when accounts close, and whether different groups of members are faring differently.

The IGR shows why the retirement questions matter. In 2022–23, the median balance in the year before death was $76,000, and around a quarter of balances exceeded $250,000. Many retirees are not using the savings, or the tax concessions, that were built up to support them in retirement.

APRA reporting is following the outcomes

APRA's Superannuation Data Transformation (SDT) significantly expanded the breadth and depth of industry data. APRA says it has made fund and product performance easier to scrutinise and compare. That data now underpins public transparency on products, fees, costs, performance and asset allocation, while the annual performance test attaches consequences to underperformance.

The retirement reporting framework is the next step. APRA's revised proposals for SRS 607.0 and SRS 611.1 are intended to show how trustees support members through retirement and how the retirement income system is developing. Drawdowns, account closures and member cohorts can be examined using regulatory data rather than assumptions.

The regulatory question has moved from "What does the fund have?" to "What is happening to members?" and, ultimately, "What outcomes is the system producing?"

For funds, the objective is not simply to lodge SRS 611.1. That data will become part of the evidence used to judge whether Australia's retirement income system is doing what it was designed to do.

The scrutiny won't ease

SDT Phase 1, Phase 2, expenses, insurance, performance, and now retirement: it's tempting to treat each as a project to get through before things settle down.

The Intergenerational Report suggests they won't. The reporting burden is following the economic importance of the system. APRA's 2026–27 Corporate Plan points the same way, with a stronger supervisory focus on retirement and continued pressure for transparency and efficiency.

What this means for funds

Regulatory reporting capability is now core infrastructure for any major financial institution. Funds need data that is consistent across returns, traceable to source systems, governed by clear definitions and able to withstand regulatory and public scrutiny.

The funds that get the most from that investment will stop treating the data as something produced only for APRA. The same information can reveal member behaviour, retirement outcomes, costs, product performance and which cohorts need different kinds of support. What starts as a compliance obligation becomes management information.

More important, more accountable

The Intergenerational Report tells a simple story. Australians will be older, live longer and spend longer in retirement, and super will fund more of it. That is a significant achievement for a system that has spent three decades accumulating savings. It also brings greater responsibility.

The scrutiny of superannuation is not increasing simply because regulators have become more interested in data. It is increasing because superannuation itself is becoming more important.

Funds that treat their data as a strategic asset, with sound lineage, reconciliation and consistency across what they report to APRA, ASIC, the ATO and members, will find each new wave of scrutiny easier to absorb. Those that treat it as a quarterly scramble will find the scramble getting harder.

And if the Intergenerational Report is right about the role the system will play over the next 40 years, that scrutiny is here to stay.