Weekly Update: 1 November 2024

Highlights this week:

• Announcement: ACCC Chair, Ms Gina Cass-Gottlieb gave a speech on Framing the future of financial services.
• Key data: CPI rose 2.8% over the 12 months to September.

Quote of the week:
“By embedding user safety into the core design of banking products, we can prevent perpetrators from exploiting financial systems to control or abuse others.”

–  eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant, endorsing the ABA’s announcement of ‘Safety by Design’

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Media & Communications Update:

• Issued a media release coinciding with the launch of the new Safety by Design toolkit in partnership with Westpac.
• The ABA released a statement encouraging residents of Far West NSW to reach out to their bank for support options as a result of recent outages.

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Policy Update:

• In partnership with Westpac, the ABA launched the new Safety by Design toolkit to give banks access to more guidance to ensure that products and services are designed to better safeguard customers from financial abuse and to identify perpetrators of financial abuse.  
• The ABA hosted a webinar with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). AFCA provided an overview and Q&A of complaints data, systemic issues and common themes and their approach to consumer hardship and small business hardship complaints. 
• ABA CEO Anna Bligh spoke on a panel at Gilbert + Tobin’s financial services forum on how better coordinating regulation via the reg grid is good for competition, customers and the economy.

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Regulatory Update:

• APRA updated the Reporting Practice Guide RPG 702.0 for Economic and Financial Statistics collection.

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Parliamentary Update:

• AML CTF hearings: The ABA appeared before Senate Committee public hearings into the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Amendment Bill 2024 [Provisions]. Also appearing were industry representatives across law, real estate and accounting, as well as AUSTRAC and AGD.
• CPI: Treasurer Jim Chalmers made comments following the release of the latest CPI figures, noting headline inflation as the lowest it has been in almost four years.
• COVID report: The Government released the COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said that “billions of dollars” were wasted in poorly targeted relief payments during the pandemic. The report also noted:
  • “Australia’s banks and regulators helped to reduce some of the financial strain on individuals and businesses over this period by offering deferrals on loans.  By agreeing to a uniform approach, the banks avoided adding further confusion to the already large number of new economic supports available.”
• Financial advice: Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones addressed the AFR Super and Wealth Summit, and expressed his desire to have the Government’s financial advice reforms legislated by May next year.
• Climate: The State of the Climate Report 2024 was released, showing Australia’s emissions have declined over the past 15 years.

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Economic Update:

• The ABS released the September quarter Consumer Price Index (CPI) data on Wednesday.

• CPI rose 0.2% this quarter compared with 1% in the previous quarter.
• CPI rose 2.8% for the year to the September quarter. Compared with 3.8% from the year to the June quarter.
• The largest price increases this quarter were Recreation and culture (+1.3%), Alcohol and tobacco (+1.3%), and Food and non-alcoholic beverages (+0.6%). Note that if the government rebates were excluded then electricity would have been the third largest contributor at 0.7%.

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Coming up next week:

• Data:
  • 6/11 – Selected Living Cost Indexes, Australia
  • 7/11 – International Trade in Goods
  • 7/11 – Building Approvals, Australia
  • 7/11 – Public sector employment and earnings
  • 8/11 – Monthly Business Turnover Indicator
  • 8/11 – Personal Income in Australia
  • 8/11 – Jobs in Australia
• Parliament:
  •  Parliament: House of Representatives is sitting + Senate Estimates.  

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Upcoming Events:

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Selected Media:

• AFR – Rate cuts at risk of delay until after the federal election 
• The Australian – ACCC chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb calls for banking competition reform 
• InDaily – Banking sector solutions for financial abuse victims 
• News.com.au – Meta pushes back at Australian Government’s plan to crack down on scams 
• AFR – ASIC peeks into AI’s scary new world for banking 

Warm regards,
The ABA Team

Weekly Update