Australia's largest industry superannuation provider has been fined $27 million for failing to notify members of their duplicate accounts.
Federal Court Justice Lisa Hespe on Friday made the ruling against AustralianSuper, finding it contravened the Superannuation Industry Act.
The company admitted that between July 2013 and June 2022, more than 90,000 of its members had multiple accounts that should have been merged.
As a result, those members incurred approximately $69 million in losses through multiple administration fees, insurance premiums and lost investment earnings.
"AustralianSuper is Australia's largest industry superannuation fund," Justice Hespe said in her judgment.
"It is inexcusable for it to not have had processes and systems in place to ensure compliance with a specific legislative requirement."
AustralianSuper reported the issue to the Australian Securities and Investment Commission in December 2021, and Justice Hespe noted it co-operated during the investigation and federal court proceedings.
ASIC and AustralianSuper had jointly submitted that the $27 million penalty was appropriate, and Justice Hespe agreed.
"The penalties in this case need to be large enough to deter other superannuation fund trustees from failing to diligently discharge their duties to act in members' best financial interests," she said.
"I am satisfied that AustralianSuper is unlikely to engage in this contravention again given the remedial action it has taken and its acceptance of its wrongdoing."
AustralianSuper's chief executive Paul Schroder apologised, saying the company had noted the mistake and compensated affected members.
"Multiple member accounts are a problem across our industry and for several years our process wasn't comprehensive enough to meet our obligations to members," he said in a statement.
"We've fixed that now and we continue to review and improve our services, so we provide members with the support and guidance they expect and deserve."
AustralianSuper has more than 3.5 million members, with responsibility for 14.6 per cent of member accounts across the nation.
