Canberra yesterday boosted funding to Australia’s corporate regulator by A$127.2 million (US$99 million) and appointed a special prosecutor to investigate financial crime, in sweeping reforms prompted by public outrage over numerous bank scandals.
The nation’s major banks — which regularly rake in multi-billion dollar profits — have been under scrutiny following a series of consumer fraud allegations involving financial planning as well as claims of interbank lending interest rate rigging.
The announcement by the conservative administration also came ahead of impending national elections — tipped to be held on July 2 — that are expected to be hotly contested by the Labor opposition that is calling for a royal commission into banking misconduct.
Australian Treasurer Scott Morrison said the government recognized that “our banks have not always lived up to the standards we expect.”
“That’s why we are continuing to act to ensure our regulators are tough cops on the beat with the resources and powers they need to respond to misconduct and prosecute those who seek to take advantage of consumers,” he said in a statement.
Morrison told reporters in Canberra that A$121 million of the additional funding would be footed by the banks.
The sweeping reforms include switching to an industry-funded model for Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) from the middle of next year, instead of taxpayer funding.
A special prosecutor would also be appointed to look into alleged criminal activity in the financial services industry.
Leading financial institutions, including the nation’s largest lender the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, have hit the headlines in recent years with some of them facing allegations of dodgy financial advice and life insurance, and mortgage fraud.
ASIC has been probing multinational banks over benchmark interest rate rigging. The regulator recently hauled two major lenders, Westpac Banking Corp and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group, to court over allegations they manipulated the interbank lending rate.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, a former investment banker, has so far resisted pressure to call for a royal commission into banking misconduct.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained