(Reuters) -Australia’s corporate regulator said on Thursday it had taken pension fund Mercer Super to court, alleging it failed to disclose investigations into major member service failures, including wrong insurance refunds to deceased members.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission said Mercer lacked adequate systems to comply with the reportable situations regime, which requires financial services licensees to promptly disclose ongoing investigations into significant breaches of their obligations.
The alleged breaches occurred between October 2021 and September 2024. ASIC also claims Mercer understated the number of affected members in reports to the regulator.
“We allege a pattern of longstanding and systemic failure by Mercer Super to comply with the law,” said Sarah Court, the regulator’s deputy chair.
The case comes after the Federal Court fined Mercer A$11.3 million ($7.4 million) in August 2024 for making false claims about the environmental, social and governance credentials of its investments.
Mercer Super did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
($1 = 1.5267 Australian dollars)
(Reporting by Rishav Chatterjee in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)
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