Posted: 7 February 2022
**Editor's note: The limited services period commenced Tuesday 22 February 2022 and ended Tuesday 12 April 2022.**
As we move our member administration services from Colonial First State Investment Limited (CFS) to Mercer Australia (Outsourcing) Pty Limited (Mercer), and investment administration and custody services from Citigroup Pty Limited, Citibank N.A (acting through its Hong Kong Branch) and CFS to State Street Australia Limited, processing of transaction and change requests will be paused from 3pm 22 February 2022.
Several years of historical data will also be transferred during the move including member records and investment administration records. This transfer of records needs the involvement of the five separate organisations to occur in a planned and carefully managed order. The large amounts amount of data must be reconciled and verified to ensure continuity of service to members and data integrity into the future.
A limited services period is required to ensure the accurate and complete transfer of records and processes to the new providers, and that the changeover can be managed with minimal adverse impacts. As a result, the processing of transactions and changes will be put on hold and daily unit prices will not be available during the limited services period.
We have aimed to limit the length of time of the freeze and acknowledge that the limited services period is inconvenient for members. This timeframe is consistent with those experienced by other funds and their members when they have undertaken a similar program of significant change.
When transaction processing is paused, contributions made by the Commonwealth Bank or via SuperStream will continue to be accepted by the fund. Contributions will then be processed to members’ accounts after the end of the limited services period.
Any transaction and change requests received in the limited services period will be held and processed to member’s accounts by Mercer in early April 2022. Once processing recommences, Mercer will prioritise all requests, however it may take a few weeks before processing timeframes return to normal.
The trustee has made the decision, that following the end of the limited services period, to apply the unit price effective on the date the transaction is processed. The trustee consider this approach the most fair and equitable to all members, and overall helps to reduce material adverse impacts to all members.
However, the limited services period does not apply to the fund’s investment managers and they will continue to have the ability to trade and manage the portfolio during the majority of this period. They will continue to manage the portfolios in line with their strategy.
