Weekly Update: 09 August 2024

Highlights this week:

• In the Media: Banks are pressing ahead with introducing an industry-wide confirmation of payee solution to better protect customers from scammers.
• Announcement: Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones commits to resetting CDR in major speech.
• Key Data: The RBA Board left the cash rate on hold at 4.35 per cent.

Quote of the week:
“The market volatility that we’ve seen has been driven by weaker than expected jobs growth and tech earnings in the US, as well as rising Japanese interest rates impacting Asian markets as well. Australia’s not immune from these global developments. We’ve seen them play out in the Australian dollar and in our own share markets as well.”

– The Hon Dr Jim Chalmers MP. Press Conference Brisbane, 6 August 2024. 

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Media & Communications Update:

• The ABA responded to the Minister’s speech on CDR, urging ‘the Government to hasten slowly on implementing the next stage of CDR, known as action initiation, which could open the door to more scams and fraud.’ 

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Policy Update:

• ABA and member banks met with AGD to discuss further details of proposed AML/CTF reforms. 
• ABA met with Data Standards Board to discuss improvements to CDR governance model. 
• ABA met with CEO Titles Queensland as they consider next steps in the Interoperability programme. 
• ABA CEO attended the Executive Cyber Council Meeting led by National Cyber Security Coordinator.

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Regulatory Update:

• The RBA released the August Statement on Monetary Policy.
• The RBA released updated graphs on the Australian economy and financial markets. 

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Parliamentary Update:

• Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones delivered a key speech at CEDA on the Consumer Data Right titled ‘Albanese Government to reset Consumer Data Right’. He announced in his speech that the Government had:
  • Opened consultation on changes to consent and operational rules. The proposed changes will streamline consent for consumers, by enabling them to provide multiple consents in a single action. Submissions will close on 9 September 2024. 
  • Released the Heidi Richards report, Consumer Data Right Compliance Costs Review, which found that the regulatory costs of implementing the CDR on its current track are substantial. 
  • Written to the Chair of the Data Standards Body to secure alignment with our direction for the CDR. 
  • Signalled the intention to expand CDR to non-bank lending in early 2025, making it operational by mid-2026 to provide a sufficient transition period. 
• On Wednesday, the Federal Opposition issued a media release which called upon the Government to pass the CDR Action Initiation bill (Treasury Laws Amendment (Consumer Data Right) Bill 2022) in the next sitting week.
• Treasurer Jim Chalmers held a press conference in Brisbane following the decision of the RBA Board to hold interest rates at 4.35 per cent. 
• The Treasurer announced reforms to the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax (PRRT).
• Both the House and Senate resume sittings next week.  

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Economic Update:

• This week the ABS released its Cost of Living index which showed that cost increases are felt unevenly across different cohorts of Australians. 
• Employees are facing larger increases in their cost of living than other groups of Australians, with a 6.2 per cent increase in the year to June 2024, higher than the Consumer Price Index (CPI) increase of 3.8 per cent. In comparison, age pensioners faced a cost of living increase closer to the CPI at 3.7 per cent.  

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Coming up next week:

Parliament/Regulators:  

• 12/08 – Both houses of Parliament resume sittings. 
• 16/08 – Senate Select Committee, Cost of Living Select Committee. 
• 16/08 – House of Representatives, Standing Committee, Economics (Review of the Reserve Bank of Australia Annual Report 2023). 

Data announcements: 

• 13/08 – ABS releases the June Wage Price Index. 
• 15/08 – ABS releases the July Labour Force statistics. 

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Upcoming Submissions:

Published submissions

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Selected Media:

• The Australian – Australia to become fourth global market moving on fraud-reducing payee system 
• The AFR – Inflation to linger until 2026, RBA warns 
• International Affairs – US and Australia to convene pacific banking forum 
• AFR – Banks say consumer data right ‘action initiation’ rescue will cost $3b 
• Yahoo Finance – Aussie bank’s incredible move after scammer conned small business out of $900,000 

Weekly Update