Australia & NZ

A mother, son and their company were convicted for helping a known pyramid scheme operator remit NZ$53mn into New Zealand, without conducting CDD or reporting suspicious transactions.

The proposed extension of the Financial Accountability Regime to ASIC-regulated firms could potentially affect 53,000 small businesses, says former ASIC official Pamela Hanrahan.

The HKMA has responded to the US rate cut with a cut of its own. The RBA and BNM have also cut their key policy rates, while the BOJ focuses on asset purchases.

The adviser helped a former company director illegally remove company assets to prevent creditors from accessing them post-winding up.

The changes include guaranteed features for basic bank accounts and the removal of overdraft and dishonour fees on basic, low fee or no fee accounts.

A Senate committee tasked with reviewing a bill to criminalise cash transactions over A$10,000 has reportedly thrown its support behind the proposed legislation.

A consultation on the changes received 36 submissions, largely supportive of ASX's proposals, citing reduced costs, operational efficiencies and improved order management capabilities.

Reports of potential misconduct first appeared in June 2015, followed by senate hearings and questioning from the Royal Commission, resulting in shareholder losses.

As of 1 January, ASIC had 316 investigations on foot related to misconduct. Cases involving CBA, NAB, Westpac, ANZ and AMP increased 52% from 12 months earlier.

Replacing a 20-year old system, the new payment settlement platform comprises an RTGS system known as ESAS 2.0 and a central securities depository called NZClear 2.0.