The Russian cybercriminals that stole personal data from nearly 10 million Australians have released the single largest data dump to date, announcing it was “case closed” for the Medibank hacking saga. Six zipped folders, with around 6.5 gigabytes of raw data in a folder called “full” was published by the hacking group on Thursday. A…

Australian music groups are calling on the federal government to set up a national agency to develop the industry. In a joint submission to the government’s national cultural policy, 18 music industry groups asked for an agency to deal with skills development, exports, local content incentives, insurance and intellectual property. Dean Ormston runs an organisation called…

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) will now require banks to hold higher capital levels against interest-only loans, which entail higher risk, under its new bank capital framework. The changes, to come into force on January 2023, are designed to establish “unquestionably strong” Australian standards that align with the internationally agreed Basel III requirements. The…

First home buyers and low-income borrowers in Australia will have a more difficult time breaking into the housing market after the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) decreased their potential borrowing capacity. The move by APRA to increase the minimum interest rate buffer on home loans from 2.5 percent to 3 percent from the end of October was designed…

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has announced long-expected changes to home loan lending rules to cool the property market. In a letter to lenders on Wednesday, APRA said they expect lenders to increase their serviceability buffer, which banks use to assess a borrowers’ ability to repay the loan, from 2.5 percent to 3 percent….

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has named thirteen superannuation funds that have failed its inaugural performance test since the government’s “Your Future, Your Super” reform came into effect on July 1. The 13 underperforming default Mysuper products, which collectively hold 56 billion in assets for 1.1 million members, include Colonial First State’s retail product Firstchoice…

Home loan commitments have risen to another new high in April, and financial regulators are pleased that it has not led to easing lending standards. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that new housing loans have risen 3.7 percent to a record high of $31 billion (US$23.8 billion), driven by owner-occupier loans….