Weekly Update: 31 January 2025

Highlights this week:

1. ‘Enough is enough’: Banks ramp up attack on tech giants over scams.
2. Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones MP announced that he won’t be standing for re-election.

Quote of the week:
“And I see my job as really 3 things: getting inflation down, getting wages up, keeping unemployment low. Australians collectively can be proud of the fact that we have been able to do all 3 of those things.”

– The Hon Jim Chalmers MP, Treasurer. Interview with ABC Melbourne, 30 January

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Media & Communications Update:

The ABA responded to multiple requests for comment from news.com.au on the topic of scam prevention, saying “Our world first approach will ensure all parts of the scams chain are held to account for the actions they take to protect customers.”

Channel 9 News ran a story on ‘Banks criticising Meta for not doing enough’, highlighting the ABA’s testimony at the Senate Select Committee (click below to watch this segment).

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Parliamentary Update:

Jones to retire: Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones announced that he would not contest the next election. He confirmed the Prime Minister had asked him to remain in his current Ministerial positions until the election, and he would continue to work towards passage of bills before the Parliament.

CSLR FY26 estimate: The Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (CSLR) released its FY26 initial levy estimate which has been calculated at $77,975,000. The amount above $20m will require funding via a special levy with formal notification of this requirement to be made to the Minister for Financial Services early in FY26.

New CSLR post-implementation review: Following the release of the CSLR’s FY26 estimate today, the Assistant Treasurer announced a review of the CSLR scheme, saying:

“While industry has provided broad support for the CSLR, it’s important that there is confidence that the scheme is meeting its objective in a way that is sustainable for both companies and consumers.”

The CSLR Review scope is available on the Treasury’s website.

Inflation: Treasurer Jim Chalmers welcomed the December quarter CPI figures, commenting that “This result is better than expected and better than forecast. It’s not mission accomplished, but it means we’ve made much more progress.”

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Policy Update:

The ABA met with the Northern Territory ORG to discuss the upcoming implementation of eConveyancing.

Submission to the ATO consultation on the Draft PCG 2024/D4: Capital raised for the purposes of funding franked distributions.

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Economic Update:

Quarterly CPI rose 0.2% in December and 2.4% for the twelve months to December. The RBA forecast released in the November board meeting was for an annual CPI of 2.6% to December. This meant that the RBA expected a 0.4% increase in CPI in the December quarter which is double the actual results. Trimmed CPI, which is the RBA’s favourite measure of inflation also came in 0.2% below their forecast at 3.2%.

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Coming up next week:

Data:

• 03/02 – Retail Trade
• 03/02 – Building Approvals
• 04/02 – Monthly Household Spending Indicator

Parliament:

• Sittings: The House and Senate return on Tuesday for the first sittings of 2025.
• Scams Prevention Framework Bill: listed for debate in the House of Representatives on Thursday.
• Payments System (PSRA) reforms: listed for debate in the Senate on Thursday.  

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Upcoming Events:

ABA & Circle Economic Forecast 2025

Date: February 20, 2025

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Selected Media:

• news.com.au – ‘Failing’: Banks hit out at Meta over scams
• 7 news – Major change announced for Aussie credit card holders as banks look to stop cyber scams
• The Australian – ASIC calls for super funds to step up scam fight
• ABC – Has the RBA got any choice but to cut interest rates in February?
• AFR – This is what higher for longer looks like

Warm regards,
The ABA Team

Weekly Update