IRD reassures industry
The Inland Revenue Department is moving to reassure the financial services industry that some companies will not get an inadvertent “heads up” on the KiwiSaver workplace savings scheme.
Friday, December 2nd 2005, 6:57AM
As Good Returns reported last week, officials are talking with some companies in the sector as part of a fact-finding exercise to get an idea about what might be needed to administer the scheme.
The Investment Savings and Insurance Association has expressed concern about the process, asking whether there is a risk of those firms being consulting being inadvertently given advance notice of some of the details of the scheme.
ISI chief executive Vance Arkinstall said that while it was understood such discussions are necessary, “the risk is some providers will be inadvertently advantaged.”
What seems to have given the concerns a bit more “edge” is the fact that a great deal of policy detail about KiwiSaver is still unknown.
However IRD officials say the discussions are at too high a level to allow any unfair advantage.
The department says, in a prepared statement, that it, along with Ministry of Economic Development and Treasury officials have talked with a few providers “to identify any issues around the development of the KiwiSaver Central Administrator System (CAS) and Inland Revenue's role in the process.
“The CAS will be administered by IRD and collect employee KiwiSaver contributions from employers and forward them to KiwiSaver financial providers. These discussions were held to inform the design of the Inland Revenue CAS system.
“Time constraints mean IRD, MED and Treasury cannot talk with all providers at this time but the discussions are at a very high level and would not give any provider an unfair advantage.”
There are also some discussions under way “to provide input into the detailed policy design and the design of the default provider process.”
The release says officials “are very aware of the need to protect tender processes and not give an undue advantage to any provider.”
| « AXA picks up BNZ Investment Management | Sovereign takes regulation bull by the horns » |
Special Offers
Commenting is closed
|
|
Printable version |
|
Email to a friend |
