Finance cops get $550m

Boost for corporate watchdogs

SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 2019 themercury.com.au SUBSCRIPTIONS 1300 696 397 AUSTRALIA’S c or porate watchdogs will be given an extra $550 million in a massive budget boost to clean up the tarnished financial sector in the wake of the banking royal commission.

Next month’s budget will include a funding lift for the Australian Securities and Investments Commission of $100 million a year for the next four years, while the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority will get $38.5 million over the same period.

The extra money will allow both agencies to take a tougher approach to law enforcement in the wake of the royal commission finding that they had been asleep at the wheel.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the lessons of the royal commission needed to be learned.

“It’s time to restore a cul- ture of compliance and accountability that puts people before profit,” he said.

“Through our actions, we will strengthen our regulators with record levels of funding and resources, provide them with more powers and larger penalties, and enable the Federal Court to prosecute cases of criminal misconduct in the financial sector.”

In an interview with News Corp ahead of the budget to be delivered on April 2, Mr Frydenberg said there were risks to the economy from slowing growth overseas.

“The near-term economic outlook is looking softer since [the release of the] Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook [report] with the economy facing some emerging risks and you’ve got slowdown globally — we’ve seen global trade volumes down 3 per cent since August last year.

“The trade tensions are continuing and the uncertainty over Brexit is continuing. Both the IMF and the OECD have downgraded their 2019 growth numbers.”

Mr Frydenberg said falling house prices were “the most significant risk” on the domestic side to the Australian economy. He could not say how long the current slump, which saw house prices fall 5.1 per cent across the capital cities last year, would last.

“Well, I think we’ve had some falls and the sense is there may be continuing softening in the market but where that lands is still unclear,” he said.

There are things happening that should improve the situation. The RBA are watching this very closely … and the various measures that APRA introduced have now been lifted. Now the royal commission is over you’ll start to see more credit available.”