The Superannuation Risk & Governance Conference 2026 brings together trustees, board members, executives,regulators, and risk leaders for two days of deep, practical insight into the most pressing governance and risk challenges facing Australian superannuation funds.
Across a carefully curated program of keynote panels, expert discussions, and interactive roundtables, the conference explores APRA expectations, trustee
accountability, operational resilience, investment and liquidity risk, member outcomes, cyber and financial crime, ESG, culture, and crisis management. With a strong focus on real-world lessons and forward-looking governance, the agenda moves beyond compliance to examine what effective, resilient, and member-focused governance looks like in practice — now and into the next decade.
- Stay ahead of regulatory expectations, with direct insights into APRA priorities,
CPS 230 and CPS 234 obligations, and emerging areas of supervisory focus. - Strengthen board and executive decision-making, through candid discussion of accountability, risk appetite, and governance under scrutiny.
- Learn from real scenarios, including liquidity stress events, cyber incidents, conduct failures, and crisis response in superannuation.
- Future-proof your governance framework, with forward-looking sessions on long-term risk measurement, member outcomes, ESG risk, and what good governance should look like by 2030.
- Gain practical, actionable insights you can immediately apply at board and management level.
- Hear diverse perspectives from regulators, trustees, CROs, CIOs, and industry leaders through panels and fireside chats.
- Participate in interactive discussions that challenge assumptions and encourage peer learning.
- Build valuable professional networks with senior decision-makers across the superannuation sector.
- Enhance confidence in navigating complex risk trade-offs while maintaining strong member outcomes and trust.
This conference is essential for:
Superannuation Trustees and Board Members, Chief Risk Officers, Risk & Compliance Leaders, Chief Executives, COOs and CFOs, Governance, legal and regulatory affairs professionals, Investment, operations and member services executives, Senior leaders responsible for CPS 230, CPS 234 and enterprise risk
Superannuation Risk & Governance 2026 Forum offers sponsors an excellent opportunity to demonstrate thought-leadership and leverage networking opportunities to build brand-value
amongst your target audience. If you would like to know more about sponsorship, exhibition and business development opportunities please just get in touch with us – sponsorship@ibrc.com.au
8:20 Delegate Registration & Coffee
Opening remarks from the Chair
• Key regulatory priorities shaping trustee obligations in 2026
• Lessons from recent APRA reviews, enforcement actions and remediation programs
• What “effective governance” looks like beyond compliance
• Board and executive accountability under heightened regulatory scrutiny
• Emerging systemic risks facing Australian super funds
• Interplay between macroeconomic volatility and member outcomes
• The next generation of non-financial risks
• How boards should reprioritise risk focus for the next decade
• Key CPS 230 obligations and timelines
• Identifying critical operations and tolerance thresholds
• Testing, disruption scenarios, and assurance
• Board accountability for operational resilience
11:10 Morning Coffee & Networking Break
• Balance of skills and experience, ensuring appropriate coverage across investment, risk, governance, technology, member outcomes, and regulatory expertise.
• Independence and diversity of thought, reducing groupthink and
strengthening challenge through a mix of independent, employer-nominated, and member-nominated trustees.
• Succession planning and tenure management, maintaining continuity while refreshing capability to meet emerging risks and regulatory expectations
• Alignment with fund purpose and membership profile, so board composition reflects the needs, complexity, and demographics of the fund’s members.
12:50 Lunch break & networking
• Managing volatility across growth and defensive assets
• Liquidity risk and stress testing in modern portfolios
• The role of diversification in a fragmented global economy
• Governance lessons from recent market shocks
• Reframing risk through the lens of member outcomes
• Measuring success beyond returns
• Balancing cost, service, and performance
• Using data to inform member-centric governance
14:40 Afternoon Tea
• Time-horizon mismatch, where short-term risk metrics (e.g. volatility, draw downs) can drive decisions that undermine long-term member outcomes and investment objectives.
• Different risk indicators tell different stories, with short-term measures focusing on market fluctuations, while long-term measures assess sustainability, sequencing risk, and real return objectives.
• Behavioural and governance impacts, as short-term performance pressure can influence trustee and management decision-making, especially during market stress.
• Need for integrated measurement frameworks, combining short-term monitoring with long-term scenario analysis, stress testing, and member outcome modelling.
• Impact of foreign exchange volatility on returns, where unhedged currency movements can materially amplify gains or losses independent of underlying asset performance.
• Strategic hedging decisions, balancing cost, complexity, and effectiveness of hedging programs against long-term investment objectives and risk appetite
• Interaction with liquidity and stress events, as currency moves during market shocks can compound portfolio stress and affect cash flow management.
• Governance and oversight considerations, including clear policies, delegation to investment managers, monitoring hedge effectiveness, and alignment with member outcomes.
• Future governance models for super funds
• Technology, transparency, and trust
• Redefining fiduciary duty for the next generation
• Key takeaways boards should act on now
Closing Remarks from the chair
17:00- 18:00 1 Hour Networking Drinks
• Managing overlapping regulatory reforms
• Prioritisation frameworks for boards and management
• Avoiding compliance overload
• Turning regulation into strategic advantage
• Inability to meet member cash flow demands due to elevated rollovers, pension payments, or switching during market stress, leading to delayed payments or forced actions.
• Forced asset sales at depressed prices, crystallising losses and disadvantaging remaining members, particularly in funds with high allocations to illiquid assets.
• Contagion and confidence risk, where negative media, member behaviour, or peer fund actions amplify outflows and accelerate liquidity pressure.
• Governance and regulatory consequences, including breaches of liquidity management requirements, heightened APRA scrutiny, and erosion of trustee credibility.
• Oversight of administrators and service providers
• Managing complaints, claims handling and advice risk
• Ensuring member outcomes under the Best Financial Interests Duty
• Strengthening service-level governance frameworks
• Erosion of real member outcomes, where sustained inflation reduces the purchasing power of retirement balances, particularly for members in or near drawdown.
• Mismatch between nominal returns and real objectives, as headline investment performance can mask failure to meet real return and income targets.
• Uneven impact across member cohorts, with retirees conservative options, and cash-heavy members most exposed to inflation shocks.
• Limits of traditional inflation hedges, where assets expected to protect against inflation may underperform, challenging assumptions in long-term portfolio design.
11:10 Morning Coffee & Networking
• Fraud, scams, and identity theft risks
• Governance of AML/CTF obligations
• Protecting vulnerable members
• Board oversight of financial crime controls
• Defining risk culture in a superannuation context
• Practical tools to assess and monitor cultural risk
• Linking culture to incidents, complaints, and outcomes
• Board-level interventions that actually work
12:50 Lunch break & Networking
• Identifying conduct risk before it becomes a breach
• Complaints, remediation, and reputational damage
• Governance frameworks that reinforce ethical behaviour
• Restoring trust after failure
• Board accountability for cyber resilience
• Managing data, privacy and third-party technology risk
• Incident response, breach management and reporting
• Building cyber maturity across the organisation
14:40 Afternoon Tea
• Balancing member expectations with fiduciary duty
• Greenwashing risk and regulatory scrutiny
• Governance of ESG frameworks
• Managing divergent stakeholder views
• Lessons from real superannuation risk events
• Board and executive roles during crises
• Regulatory notifications and member communications
• Rebuilding trust after major incidents
• Managing accountability in outsourced environments
• Third-party risk under heightened regulatory scrutiny
• Contractual governance vs practical oversight
• When to intervene — and when to exit
Closing remarks from the Chair
Register & pay for 3 delegates with normal rate & get unlimited registrations* (*Can attend in-person or virtually)
Register & pay for 3 delegates with normal rate & get unlimited registrations* (*Can only attend virtually)
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