Australia’s Treasurer Urges Regulators Not to Hinder Recovery
Australia’s Treasurer Urges Regulators Not to Hinder Recovery
(Bloomberg) --
Australia’s Treasurer Josh Frydenberg urged the nation’s financial regulators not to hinder the economic recovery by stifling the flow of credit to consumers and businesses.
In an opinion piece published Wednesday, Frydenberg reminded regulators they should follow the lead of parliament and not operate in a vacuum. The government is in the midst of relaxing responsible lending laws and says a decade of ever-increasing regulation for banks has led to excessive risk aversion and choked off credit.
“The public rightly expects that regulators pursue their enforcement activities according to the law and independent of government,” Frydenberg wrote in the Australian Financial Review, ahead of a speech to the newspaper’s Banking and Wealth Summit. “However, regulators do not carry out their mandates in a vacuum. They must pursue their mandates in a manner that is consistent with the will of the parliament.”
“It is the parliament who determines who and what should be regulated,” Frydenberg wrote. “It’s the role of regulators to deliver on that intent, not to supplement, circumvent or frustrate it.”
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