NZAS Retirement fund - interest rate error 

What happened?

On the evening of Friday 16 February 2018, an incorrect interest rate was applied to the process which calculated the balances of members who were invested in the Growth investment option. This incorrect interest rate was discovered on the morning of 19 February and was subsequently corrected the same day.

What does this mean?

This means that if you have any balance in the Growth investment option, and viewed or were provided with the balance of your accounts in the Fund on or in-between those dates, the balance given to you would have been incorrect.

The interest rate error caused any assets held in the Growth investment option to be displayed as undervalued by approximately 16.7%.

What do I need to do?

There is nothing you need to do. We have made the appropriate corrections to the interest rates, and your account balances are now as they should be. Where any investment switches have been made during this period, your switch has been reprocessed using the correct rate.

Confirmation letters advising the correct account balances are in the process of being issued to members who had balances in the Growth investment option and requested switches effective 1 February 2018.

We sincerely apologise to you for any inconvenience this error may have caused you. Mercer views this incident extremely seriously, and we are undertaking a review of the way in which interest rates are applied to member’s balances in order to ensure that an error like this cannot happen again.

Mercer has apologised to the Directors of the Fund’s Trustee, who were informed of the error on the same day it was discovered. The Directors have expressed their dissatisfaction and are working with Mercer to ensure that appropriate actions are taken.

If you would like to discuss this further or need any further information, please call the Helpline on 0508 266 787 (Australia 03 8681 1849; international +61 3 8681 1849).