Bank Custodians and Systemic Risk in the Australian Superannuation System

Abstract

Custodians play an integral role in the administration of Australia’s superannuation system. This article considers the way in which the small number of custodians, and the increasingly diverse set of services they provide to superannuation funds, gives rise to systemic risk within the superannuation system. It also considers the way in which the current regulatory scheme addresses this risk. It finds a regulatory scheme in which the potential for systemic risk is increasingly recognised but in which little is currently done to manage this risk as a result of institutional, political and jurisdictional factors.