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Superannuation, wealth and investment management electronic commerce program

The swimEC program is tasked with creating the standards and processes required for electronic exchange of information in the superannuation and managed funds industry. Full adoption of the standards by those industries has the potential to generate industry-wide cost savings of up to $660 million.

The swimEC program is an initiative of the superannuation and managed funds industry with a governing council comprising the key bodies: The Association of Superannuation Funds of Australia Limited (ASFA); the Australian Taxation Office (ATO); the Investment and Financial Services Association (IFSA); The Association of Payroll Specialists (TAPS) and the Financial Planners Association.

The swimEC program is a merger of the superannuation industry's SuperEC program and the managed funds industry's MFundEC program. The governing council was expanded to include the Financial Planning Association (FPA). The SuperEC and MFundEC program's separately developed standards have been re-issued as swimEC Standards.

Superannuation Product Identification Number (SPIN)

Surcharge reporting changes
From 1 July 2002 the Superannuation Surcharge reporting requirements for rollovers and transfers have been tightened and a superannuation Provider is required to notify to the ATO either:

•  the Destination Member Account Number, or
• the SPIN (Superannuation Product Identification Number) of the particular superannuation product that is the target of the transfer or rollover.

The use of the SPINs in surcharge reporting exploits the synergies between the SuperEC project and surcharge reporting, creating certain administrative efficiencies.

SPIN Register
To facilitate industry use of the SPIN in surcharge reporting, the SuperEC program established a publicly accessible database, known as the Surcharge Reporting Register, as a part of the SPIN registers. The Surcharge Reporting Register is made publicly accessible by APIR Systems Limited.

Guidelines on the use of SPIN
Guidelines are available explaining the use of SPIN for Surcharge Reporting, the registration process and the steps that need to be completed by providers. A working group comprising representatives from the Superannuation Industry, ATO and APIR developed Guidelines of the Use of the Superannuation Product Identification Number (SPIN) for Surcharge Reporting Purposes. These Guidelines are available for downloading:

SPIN Guidelines, March 2002 (MS Word, 270 Kb)