Fund Validation Service

Your APRA-regulated fund must provide rollover and contribution details of its products on the Fund Details Register. You do this using the Fund Validation Service (FVS).

FVS web services

The FVS consists of the following web services:

• Lodge (FVSU) – this is the service you use to update your fund's unique superannuation identifier (USI) details. That is, the rollover and contribution details of your fund's products.
• Get (FVSG) – enables funds, intermediaries and employers to get details of a super product. This includes bank details, electronic service address and contact details.
• List (FVSL) – enables funds, intermediaries and employers to get a list of product names and USIs.

The FVS is accessed through the Standard Business Reporting (SBR) framework. You may need to build FVS-enabled software or purchase it from a digital service provider (DSP).

Mandatory use of the FVS

Use of the FVS is mandatory for APRA-regulated funds and retirement savings account (RSA) providers. The FVS user guide explains how to use it and the FVS terms and conditions details who can access the service and their responsibilities.

Exempt public sector super schemes may choose to be listed on the register.

Updates to the FVS are only accepted through the FVSU (lodge) web service. Any super provider not able to access the FVSU web service must have alternate arrangements in place with a third-party provider.

To support the voluntary adoption of the standard by a life insurance company, we may publish details of annuity products in the register.

Self-managed super funds (SMSFs) are not included in the FVS. Payments to SMSFs will continue to be made at the fund level.

Unique superannuation identifier

A USI is used to identify super funds and individual super fund products for electronic rollovers and contributions. A super fund may have one USI or it may have a USI for each product. The USI allows monies to be paid to funds at the product or sub-fund level instead of fund level.

A fund is not limited by the regulations regarding the number of USIs it can nominate per registrable super entity. However, there are practical consequences flowing from a large number of USIs, including:

• the extra administrative burden of maintaining the associated fund details
• the potential to make it harder (rather than easier) for employers and funds to deal with you electronically.

You should consider minimising the number of USIs, bank accounts and service addresses a sender has to deal with. Wherever possible, it makes good business sense to shield external parties from the internal complexity of your systems, reducing the likelihood of allocation errors.

You can use a product's super product identification number (SPIN) as a USI.

Electronic service address

The regulations state that a trustee must provide one electronic service address for each USI of an entity, which will be a gateway intermediary service as its end-point. A second electronic service address may be provided for a USI if a fund chooses a different gateway intermediary for contributions and rollovers. In this instance, we will treat the contributions address as the primary service address and the rollover address as the secondary service address.

We have approved the use of a uniform resource locator (URL) as one kind of digital address for the receiving electronic communications.

Primary and secondary data

In the register, data to be used for contributions is recorded as primary data. Data to be used for rollovers is recorded as secondary data.

Only some data fields will have primary and secondary fields. Where a fund only provides primary data, this will by default be used for secondary (rollover) messages and payments.

Correcting errors

The fund trustee has the legal responsibility to correct errors.

If you discover a significant error in the register and this error is likely to cause rollovers or contributions to fail or be misdirected, you should immediately re-lodge an update to the USI record via the web service. The register will then be corrected.

When there is an error in critical information, such as effective dates, financial institution account details or service addresses, you should also advise us by emailing SPREnablingServices@ato.gov.au.

For critical issues relating to fund details in the Fund Details Register, visit the software developers siteExternal Link for more information.

Security and fraud risks

We've identified two main threats:

• A threat agent (internal staff or external collaborator) could attempt to create false USIs on your behalf or change the bank account or service address details of authentic USIs.
• A threat agent (internal staff, external collaborator and/or hacker) could try to change, steal or otherwise compromise the bank account details and other identifiers of funds by accessing your systems or intercepting your communications or download sessions with us.

You should consider how to mitigate risks to your systems. At a minimum, ensure you follow the lodgment and verification processes and security guidelines in the Fund Validation Service user guide.

You are responsible for applying appropriate fraud prevention and security controls within your environment. We have in place a comprehensive set of security and fraud controls to mitigate the risks associated with managing the register and associated interactions with you on data collection and dissemination.

Appointing another entity to access FVS updates

To appoint another entity to access FVS updates on your behalf:

1. The principal authority or authorisation administrator for the fund logs into Access Manager.
2. Select who has access to my business from the left menu.
3. You'll see a list of businesses already authorised for at least one activity. Check if the business you're seeking to appoint already has a current business appointment from your fund. If so, you don't need to take any further action.

If the business does not appear:  

4. Click appoint new business.
5. Enter the ABN of the business you want to appoint.
6. Select continue.
7. Under the Business Details heading you'll see a list of online functionality. Select Lodge super product details.
8. Save the record. You have now granted the other entity the authority to update the FVS register on your behalf.

Table 1: Access Manager permissions and descriptions

Web-service name	Access Manager description	Business appointments
FVS Lodge (FVSU)	Lodge super product details	Available
FVS List (FVSL)	List super products	Available
FVS Get (FVSG) – Single	View super product details	Available
FVS Get (FVSG) – Bulk	Not displayed	Not available

If authorisation of an agent is withdrawn, you should remove the business appointment using Access Manager.

APRA-regulated funds must provide rollover and contribution details of their products on the Fund Details Register. They do this using the Fund Validation Service (FVS).