APRA not ready to drop guard

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) will not be dialling down its supervisory oversight in a belief that the worst of the global financial crisis is over.

That is the message from the chairman of APRA, John Laker, who has told the Senate Standing Committee on Economics that while Australian institutions weathered the crisis better than most, it was not a time for “hats in the air” by Australian financial institutions.

“Certainly, APRA is not ready to dial down the level of its supervisory intensity,” Laker said.

Discussing global regulatory reforms, Laker made clear that APRA was conscious of ensuring that changes within the Australian environment did not unduly hamstring the local industry.

“While the need for global reform is unquestioned, prudential regulators do not wish to introduce measures that impose an overall burden greater than the sum of the parts,” he said. “That would thwart global recovery efforts or would have unintended consequences.”

The APRA chairman said the regulator was participating actively in a study of the impact of the reform proposals and would be feeding in relevant information from a number of Australian approved deposit-taking institutions “to ensure that we understand fully the implications of the reform proposals for Australia”.