MTAA Super Fund dopes 'blew up' over A$2billion of total A$5.8billion under management of 258,000 members funds.
Bet the members are impressed NOT !!!
About time Industry Super Funds started to get the idea that their MEMBERS are the shareholders.
Again from Business Spectator ...
MTAA comes under fresh scrutiny: report Published 4:35 AM, 7 Jun 2011 Last update 5:45 AM, 9 Jun 2011
The MTAA Superannuation Fund, already the subject of a regulatory investigation over its performance during the global financial crisis, has found itself the target of a fresh round of scrutiny as reports emerge that an influential union won access to several hundred thousand retail employees for MTAA, despite the fund's poor performance, according to the Australian Financial Review newspaper.
The two Australian Manufacturing Workers Union officials who brokered the arrangement were found to also be serving as trustees of the super fund, but did not disclose the arrangement, according to the AFR.
The tie-up gave the MTAA fund access to millions more in retirement investments at a time when it ranked 48th out of 49 funds in performance over the previous year, despite being the country's 10th largest super fund.
MTAA chief executive Michael Delaney defended the fund's performance, which has come under investigation over how it lost $500 million during the global financial crisis, according to a report by The Australian.
Mr Delaney said that the losses were not sustained by removing currency hedges, though he said the fund was un-hedged for a "short" period during the crisis.
He said the fund reviewed its currency hedging strategy in the midst of the recession, and appointed an external currency manager in May 2009.
Since news broke earlier this week that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) was investigating the fund's performance during the recession, Mr Delaney has come under fire and faced calls for his resignation, according to earlier reports.
The fund's response to the financial crisis caused its illiquid investments in alternative investments to soar to about 70 per cent of total assets, and saw the fund report negative investment income of $1.67 billion in the year to June 2009 as losses mounted over investments sold to obtain cash, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The losses were deepened when the decision was made to remove currency hedging when the Australian dollar fell 40 per cent in late 2008, the AFR report said. -----------------------------------------------------------------------
