Australia & NZ

The FMA expects banks to change sales-linked incentives, or explain how they will strengthen controls to address the risk of inappropriate sales.

Australia to provide approximately A$50 million for public prosecutions and federal court to expand staff and capacity to litigate banking and financial institution misconduct cases.

The FSB notes progress to strengthen major IBORs and identify RFRs and other alternative reference rates, highlighting actions taken in Australia, Hong Kong and Singapore.

The new standard aims to reduce contingency risks for the central bank as a lender of last resort and ensure financial intermediaries supply sufficient HQLA assets.

The penalty is far less than the combined A$125mn that NAB, ANZ and CBA paid to settle their own BBSW cases with ASIC out of court.

Australia has been re-rated on 7 of the 40 FATF Recommendations, reflecting the country's progress to strengthen AML/CFT measures since its 2015 mutual evaluation.

The banking regulator is seeking feedback on a proposal to increase the Total Capital requirement for Australia's D-SIBs by 4-5% of risk-weighted assets by 2023.

The prudential standard is aimed at boosting the resilience of APRA-regulated entities and ensuring their ability to respond to breaches swiftly and effectively.

But conduct and culture issues do not appear to be widespread at banks in New Zealand, the FMA and RBNZ said, citing only 'a small number of issues' related to poor conduct by bank staff.

Following Royal Commission findings that APRA never took a financial institution to court, the agency said it needed more funding to take a more aggressive enforcement approach.