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Regulation

Today

Armaguard was excluded from a meeting at the RBA on Wednesday.

Major banks ready to carry Westpac’s Armaguard load

The banks and regulators met on Wednesday afternoon without the cash transit monopoly to work out how to replace Westpac’s unique cash distribution operation.

  • James Eyers

Yesterday

Led by Anthony Albanese, politicians have blamed Coles and Woolies for higher supermarket prices.

Australia must catch up and get serious about cutting red tape

Deregulation is a good place to start, but cutting red tape alone is not a silver bullet to fix Australia’s economic stagnation.

  • The AFR View
ASIC chairman Joe Longo is at the centre of a big market debate.

Super sector lies at heart of ASIC’s public v private debate

ASIC’s upcoming report into the shifts in public and private markets in Australia reflects the structural changes super is driving across the economy and markets.

  • James Thomson

This Month

Gina Cass-Gottlieb was all smiles when announcing Qantas was paying $100 million to settle the ACCC’s case against it.

Cass-Gottlieb still gets Qantas VIP treatment

Qantas’ perks system is as hard to quit as the mob, it seems.

  • Hannah Wootton

January

A cartoon image of Donald Trump with cryptocurrency tokens in Hong Kong. The US President has signalled his administration will be friendlier toward the crypto industry.

Coalition channels Trump and says it will be a ‘friend’ of crypto

Luke Howarth, the Coalition’s financial services spokesman, said Labor’s failure to legislate rules had left ASIC calling the shots in the industry.

  • James Eyers
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Simone Constant and Margaret Cole plan to keep the pressure up on superannuation funds this year.

Warning to big super: fix customer service, or we’ll see you in court

Labor’s plan to force superannuation funds to meet minimum standards will add fuel to regulators Margaret Cole and Simone Constant’s 2025 ambitions.

  • Hannah Wootton
Mastercard and Visa are resisting attempts to regulate their processing fees and forcing them to be disclosed.

Mastercard and Visa resist RBA plan to force fee disclosure

The US card giants are pushing back on the central bank’s objective of making their charges more transparent.

  • James Eyers
Tap and go

Banks pick fight with RBA over wholesale payment fees

The central bank is considering stricter caps on “interchange fees” in its review of payment costs. Worth $2.1 billion annually, squeezing this could hurt competition.

  • James Eyers
President Donald Trump signs an executive order relating to cryptocurrency in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

War room, webinars: Corporate America tries to cope with Trump blitz

Businesses have been left trying to nail down what the tax, immigration, DEI and energy orders will mean for them.

  • Stephen Foley, James Fontanella-Khan and Jamie Smyth
ACCC chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb is one of the top officials at the regulator to have resigned from the Chairman’s Lounge.

Senior ACCC officials resign en masse from Qantas’ Chairman’s Lounge

The secretive, invite-only club is reserved for top businesspeople and government officials and it gives the airline enormous influence to support its ambitions.

  • Ayesha de Kretser

Cheap satellite calls could soon be coming to a phone near you

A new generation of providers with low orbiting networks could transform phone use and challenge major telecoms groups like Telstra and Optus within two years.

  • Jenny Wiggins
Zoe Hawkins, Johanna Weaver and Sunita Kumar are leaving ANU to launch their own tech policy think tank, the Tech Policy Design Centre.

New think tank urges Albanese to stand up to Trump’s big tech buddies

The prime minister must go head-to-head with American social media giants over plans to regulate them more heavily, the Tech Policy Design Institute says.

  • Tess Bennett
TikTok’s fate in the United States is now up to Donald Trump.

Can this $14b start-up rescue TikTok’s US operations?

Perplexity AI, an AI-powered search engine start-up, is proposing a merger with $80 billion behemoth TikTok to get around the US ban.

  • Julia Love

December 2024

About 1 in every 10 loans is going to a first home buyer, Australia’s biggest banks have revealed.

What the average first home buyer looks like (according to the banks)

The country’s biggest lenders have offered a glimpse into their lending habits in the midst of a debate over whether to ease rules for younger borrowers.

  • Lucas Baird

The mistake Trump isn’t making a second time

The motto of Donald Trump’s transition is another Reagan-era motto: “personnel is policy”. Here’s what to expect from his lieutenants in five key areas.

  • Matthew Cranston
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The ASX has been battling repeated outages at its crucial clearing and settlements platform, known as CHESS.

ASX scrambles to fix CHESS settlements outage as traders fume

At lunchtime on Friday as many stockbrokers went to end-of-year lunches, the market operator said its batch payments had failed, threatening a cash flow crunch.

  • James Eyers
An image of Donald Trump holding a bitcoin token. His election has pushed more investors into the digital asset.

ASIC’s attempts to clarify crypto rules confuses digital exchanges

Independent Reserve, BTC Markets and Kraken say new guidance and industry calls have not provided any clarity about whether they will need to obtain licences.

  • James Eyers
Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Why Musk has hit payday even before Trump takes office

The Tesla chief executive and other super-wealthy entrepreneurs could benefit from deregulation with the new president, but some are already reaping rewards.

  • Edward Luce
Office towers are plummeting in value, but APRA says super funds are falling short on repricing their assets.

Super boards, executives failing on unlisted asset valuations

The regulator demanded funds sharpen their review processes, warning it will not hesitate to take further action and may pursue individuals.

  • Hannah Wootton
Cbus has defended the high bill of its 40th birthday bash, which both John Setka and Wayne Swan attended.

Cbus says $387,000 birthday party was in members’ interests

The industry fund used money earmarked for staff professional development to host a 40th birthday bash for more than 750 guests

  • Hannah Wootton

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/topic/regulation-hos