Australia & NZ

New DLT system to provide more efficient clearing, settlement and other post-trade services through improved record keeping, reduced reconciliation, more timely transactions, better quality data.

APRA is proposing to do away with a 2014 measure that set an annual 10% cap for home lending growth for banks that can demonstrate better lending practices and low lending rates.

CFA Institute survey finds as little as 31% of investors in Australia and 35% in Hong Kong trust the financial services industry.

Most Asian jurisdictions are behind on implementing counterparty credit risk measures, capital for CCP exposures as well as TLAC, IRRBB and LEX requirements.

Australia released new draft regulations to make technical amendments to the levies in the industry funding framework; consultation closes on 14 May 2018.

Criminal offences can result in 10 years imprisonment or $725,000 for individuals; or the larger of $7.25 million, 3 times the benefits, or 10% of annual turnover for companies.

Key initiatives introduced at banks include customer advocacy programmes, whistleblower protection policies and conduct background checks to stamp out staff with poor behaviour records.

Australian banks take on average over 4 years to identify misconduct, over 4 months to report it, over 7 months post-investigation to compensate customers.

Draft law provides ASIC with wider range of tools to enforce better protections for client money held for OTC derivatives.

Wealth manager AMP covered up for years a policy of charging customers fees for advice they never received; sought to influence “independent” review into the practice to protect executives.