Wayne Byres, Chairman – the Australian Business Economists (ABE), Sydney
I would like to start by thanking the Australian Business Economists for the invitation to be part of today’s event.
On 1 July, APRA turned 20. Two decades of prudential regulation have required APRA to tackle all manner of issues, but a constant theme in our work has been building strength and resilience. The community wants their financial institutions to be safe, but the business of finance is the business of risk-taking. So building resilience against those risks is fundamental to preserving ongoing trust and confidence in the financial sector.
Today I want to talk about some important ways we have been building strength and resilience in the banking system. I’ll recap our actions to reinforce sound mortgage lending policies and practices over the past few years. Then I’ll outline the results of APRA’s 2017 stress test of banks’ resilience. Finally, I’ll also discuss the industry’s progress with respect to recovery planning, so that we can gain more confidence that banks can not only survive adversity, but effectively recover from it.
