As you have probably read, the corporate regulator ASIC has launched court action against super fund Cbus over delayed payments of death and disability benefits.

The prudential regulator is asked by Lucas Baird from the AFR as to whether APRA is also taking any action against Cbus.

APRA chair John Lonsdale says he doesn’t want to add too much to previous statements, but that Cbus has been on the regulator’s radar.

“We have imposed some license conditions, we are working on that entity,” he tells the ASIC annual forum.

“We’ve got, as I said before, our key mandate is to make sure that trustees are operating in the members’ interest and where we have a question on that we will take action. That’s what’s happening in this particular case.

“And you know, I think you can see both regulators working on it.”

For more details on the allegations against Cbus, read Lewis Wiseman’s story from yesterday.

Embattled mining company Mineral Resources has released a statement saying companies linked to the daughter of managing director Chris Ellison were asked to repay $158,000 after an investigation into a longstanding “rent relief” practice.

MinRes has been facing heat in recent weeks over several issues, with questions raised around its governance and allegations in Nine newspapers that Mr Ellison was involved in tax evasion.

In a statement to the ASX late last night MinRes said between 2012 and 2023 it offered “rent relief” to entities in which Mr Ellison’s daughter had an interest. It said the nature of that arrangement wasn’t identified by the company until 2023 when MinRes said it halted the deal and required Mr Ellison’s daughter’s organisations to repay $158,000.

The company said the rent relief arrangement should have been disclosed to shareholders and that processes previously in place to manage “related party transactions” were not robust but that it had since improved them.

The MinRes Board along with law firm Herbert Smith Freehills is continuing its investigation into allegations surrounding Chris Ellison.

We aim to please here at the ABC business and markets blog and if you want a dog GIF, we will deliver. Here is a nice retriever that bears a striking resemblance to my own:

The head of the prudential regulator APRA – which oversees the safety of banks, insurers and super funds – John Lonsdale says surging insurance costs are becoming a “real issue” for Australia.

“If you’ve got home insurance, you’ve got car insurance, there’s been significant increases in premiums over recent years,” he acknowledges.

“There’s a whole range of factors that’s driven that. We’ve got natural disasters, we’ve got more risk in the system, we’ve got reinsurers repricing, we’ve got different building standards and cost of living pressures, a whole range of things that plays into that.

“What we’re saying to insurers is it’s good if you can keep explaining why. So people should understand why premiums are going up.”

Yesterday we heard a discussion about the growing risk to the banking sector of Australians with home loans who have let their home insurance lapse, in breach of their mortgage contracts.

Mr Lonsdale says APRA doesn’t have much data on who isn’t insured, but is conscious of the growing risks.

“In terms of who doesn’t have insurance, and under-insurance, it’s a big issue, and that’s something we don’t collect data on,” he admits.

“There’s anecdotal data out there but it is, we believe, a very real issue and a growing issue for the country that we have to face into.”

While money laundering is one risk in Australia’s housing market, another one is purely home grown.

“If you look at household debt to income in Australia, globally, incredibly high, and if you look at the value of mortgages on banks’ balance sheets, globally, incredibly high,” notes APRA chair John Lonsdale.

“And so those two factors [mean APRA is] very, very focused on housing.”

Mr Lonsdale says the regulator is conscious of balancing the systemic risks with the need for individual home buyers to be able to access a home loan.

“One of the big tools that we use is macroprudential tools, and there are various tools that we’ve got – from buffers, counter-cyclical buffer, we’ve got a serviceability buffer, which is often in the news, and we can impose credit restrictions if we need to,” he explains.

“We will be putting out a new macroprudential statement before the end of the year, just how we’re seeing that.

“But there’s considerable risks that we see on the horizon, and that’s a big tool that we’ve got, which is currently set at 3% it impacts housing.

“But just to finish off on that point, that particular setting is set at a system wide level, and we’re very aware that there are borrowers out there who might not be able to pass that test.

“So what we say to the banks is, if you see the borrower – maybe they’re a first time buyer, maybe there’s someone refinancing and mortgage, they’ve got a good track record – you’ve got an exception according to risk appetite. There is that exception [to approve the loan].”

My colleague Nassim Khadem recently took a look at some of the regulatory hurdles that many home buyers are facing and whether there is scope for change or whether that would add too much risk to the financial sector.

AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas says Australia is a prime destination for money laundering, from both illicit activities domestically but also international crime syndicates.

“The biggest source of those proceeds are sales of drugs. We estimate that that sale generates about $16.5 billion a year. All that money is laundered through the Australian economy,” he observes.

“Taxation fraud is another significant challenge. The Australian Institute of Criminology estimates between $1 [billion] and $8 billion a year is laundered through the Australian economy through taxation fraud.

“The profits through the sale of illicit tobacco and domestic scams are two other big challenges that we have.

“But the other side of the coin is the increasing attractiveness of Australia’s economy to launder the proceeds of international crime, and that’s a significant challenge for Australia and a significant challenge for us geographically, where we are in the world, amid the growth of some industrial-sized scams in Southeast Asia, and people looking to launder proceeds of those those scams through the Australian economy, and also locate and score the wealth from those in Australia.”

The federal government is again looking at introducing “tranche three” anti-money laundering laws to the parliament, which have been on the drawing board for a decade or more.

These would require professionals like lawyers, accountants and real estate agents to report suspicious transactions, as financial institutions like banks already have to.

Unsurprisingly, these professionals are generally opposed to this, as it means extra work and potentially losing some lucrative clients.

But, based on what the AUSTRAC boss is saying, Australian real estate is a very attractive haven for dirty money.

The final half-day of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission’s annual forum kicks-off with the much anticipated “meet the regulators” panel.

We’re hearing again from ASIC’s chair Joe Longo, but he’s joined this time by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s chair John Lonsdale (whose organisation regulates banks, insurers and super funds), and the head of anti-money laundering agency AUSTRAC, Brendan Thomas.

ASIC’s chair will be doing a one-on-one interview with the ABC’s Alicia Barry after the panel to air on tonight’s Close of Business program.

As we heard yesterday, Australia’s unemployment rate remained steady at 4.1%.

So what does this mean for the timing of interest rate cuts here?

My colleague Rhiana Whitson has you covered:

Shares in Disney have surged after its quarterly earnings beat estimates and its streaming unit swung from loss into profit.

Big blockbuster films and streaming helped offset a decline in other areas including theme parks and traditional TV networks.

Revenue reached US$22.6 billion, while operating income rose 23% from a year earlier to nearly US$3.7 billion.

Operating income at Disney’s entertainment unit, which includes film, TV and streaming, more than doubled to US$1.1 billion in the quarter, bolstered by programs like Only Murders in the Building and films including Deadpool & Wolverine and Alien: Romulus.

Streaming services Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ announced operating profit of US$321 million for the quarter, marking their second straight quarter of profitability. The streaming unit had reported a loss in the same period last year.

Disney’s stock jumped 10.2% to $113.17, its highest share price in six months.

President-elect Donald Trump has made it very clear he plans to make America a global manufacturing giant.

The Business host Alicia Barry spoke to Sanjeev Gandhi, the chief executive of Australian chemical and explosives manufacturer Orica, following the announcement of the company’s full-year results:

The head of the US’s central bank has said strong economic growth, a solid job market, and inflation that remains above target means the Federal Reserve is in no rush to lower interest rates and will be able to deliberate carefully on future moves.

Speaking in Dallas in the past half hour, Jerome Powell said:

“the economy is not sending any signals that we need to be in a hurry to lower rates. The strength we are currently seeing in the economy gives us the ability to approach our decisions carefully.”

The slower pace of rate cuts aligns with current market expectations following Donald Trumps’ election victory and persistent inflation. Traders are predicting another quarter percentage point rate cut in December and fewer cuts next year than previously forecast.

Mr Powell said officials are taking their time to assess the impact of Mr Trump’s slated policies on tax cuts, tariffs and immigration on economic growth and inflation.

But he said the Fed still considers inflation to be “on a sustainable path to 2%”:

“Inflation is running much closer to our 2% longer-run goal, but it is not there yet”

With Reuters

It’s the end of another busy week and this morning we’re digesting yesterday’s job news and looking ahead to events further afield.

I’ll be with you this morning to guide you through business and markets developments here and abroad.

The US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has just spoken in Dallas, where he pared back expectations for the pace of interest rate cuts due to ongoing economic growth, a solid job market, and inflation that remains above the 2% target.

He said the central bank was not in a rush to lower rates. I’ll bring you more on that shortly.

There’s a bunch of overseas economic data out later today, but no major slated local events or data releases on the horizon so far.

The Australian share market is set to open higher, despite US stocks falling today. Futures are up 0.64% to 8308 points at 7:20am AEDT.

As we saw yesterday, some economists are pushing back their forecasts of when the first rate cut will be announced, after yesterday’s jobs data and fears of persistent inflation. NAB is now predicting May (the others still say February). If that transpires it could mean the cut will come after the federal election, which is expected to be called sometime in the first five months of next year.