Today the Rudd Government is announcing additional funding for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA), the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and the Department of the Treasury.
This will ensure that our regulators continue to have the resources they need to maintain the strength of Australia's financial system during the global financial crisis.
Australia's regulators are first class and these measures will ensure that the Australian people can continue to have absolute confidence in the performance of our regulators during the global financial crisis.
Our regulators have stepped up their monitoring and other activities as the global financial turmoil has unfolded. This has been critical in ensuring the strength of Australia's financial system, in the face of the most significant upheaval in global financial markets since the Great Depression.
The intensification of the global financial crisis over recent weeks has resulted in a greatly increased workload for our regulators. This additional funding will ensure that the regulators continue to have sufficient resources to fulfil their roles in light of global developments.
The additional funding to APRA will also enable it to respond to applications from entities seeking to become authorised deposit-taking institutions (ADIs), where they are able to meet Australia's prudential regulatory requirements.
As ADIs these entities would be able to take deposits and would be eligible for the Government guarantee on deposits.
The additional funding totals $83 million over four years with $21.5 million in 2008-09, $43.5 million in 2009-10, $9 million in 2010-11 and $9 million in 2011-12.
Of this additional funding, APRA will receive $9 million in 2008-09 and $18.5 million in 2009-10, and $9 million in each of 2010-11 and 2011-12 to enable it to manage the effects of the global financial crisis.
This funding will be provided from the Budget, rather than being recovered from levies on the financial sector. These arrangements will be reviewed in the 2009-10 Budget context and in light of developments in global financial markets.
Of the additional funding, ASIC will receive $10 million in 2008-09 and $20 million in 2009-10 to help it manage the domestic and international implications arising from the global financial crisis.
This funding will provide ASIC with additional ‘front-line' resources for market monitoring and enforcement activities to further strengthen confidence in Australia's financial markets.
Of the additional funding, Treasury will receive funding of $2.5 million in 2008-09 and $5 million in 2009-10 to ensure Australia's regulatory environment continues to be world's best practice and to pursue reform of the global financial architecture, through the G20 and other international forums.
The Government will ensure our regulators remain appropriately resourced throughout the global financial crisis and will continue to review funding requirements as the crisis unfolds.