Mercer Super fined $10.3M over failures

• The Federal Court has penalised Mercer Super for systemic compliance system failures spanning nearly three years.
• The company must pay a $10.3 million penalty along with a $1.2 million in regulatory legal costs.
• The regulator is targeting member-service failures as part of its official enforcement priorities.

The Federal Court fined Mercer Super $10.3 million after compliance failures left regulators unaware of serious member issues.

The penalty follows a separate $11.3 million fine against the company in August 2024 for misleading sustainable investment options.

“This was not an isolated oversight,” said ASIC Chair Sarah Court.

The internal issues included delays allocating $64 million in member funds and charging insurance premiums to deceased accounts.

The corporate regulator has made member-service failures across the superannuation sector a primary enforcement priority.

Other sector participants, including United Super, Telstra Super, and AustralianSuper, face ongoing regulatory interventions over insurance and benefit claims processing.