Despite receiving a “show cause” letter from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) in relation to his role as a director of the Axa staff superannuation fund, Axa Asia Pacific Holdings CEO Andrew Penn says he has the full support of the company.

APRA has asked Mr Penn, along with several other senior Axa staff, to explain why they should not be investigated for their role in underpaying former super fund members during 2002 and 2003.

Axa Chairman Rick Allert also supports Mr Penn, who is widely expected to succeed Les Owen as Axa CEO.

Mr Penn heads Axa’s Australian and New Zealand businesses, and was one of several trustees of the in-house fund to receive the letter.

In a statement Mr Penn said he was “very confident” that APRA would be “totally satisfied that the trustee and its directors, including myself, acted properly”.

Last week APRA and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) accepted an enforceable undertaking by the Axa trustee, adjusting upwards the super benefits of 1200 current and former members of the super plan. An estimated $9.2 million will go to a group of 236 members of the deferred benefit scheme.

Those members’ complaints related to the method used in credit returns. The trustees in 2002 opted to abandon a “smoothing” method, by which returns were averaged over three years, in favour of an actual return method, which resulted in sharply lower returns for the years in question.

APRA and ASIC said they were also concerned that the trustee had not provided its members with sufficient information needed to make an informed decision about whether to accept an employer offer to members in April 2003.