By Dominic Powell and Emma Koehn.
Senior executives at the helm of Commonwealth Bank Australia (CBA) will have their bonuses slashed for the financial year just passed in the wake of the money laundering allegations scandal brought to light last week, reports the ABC.
The directors’ pay has also been cut by 20% for the current financial year.
The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) uncovered nearly 54,000 cases of alleged breaches of money-laundering and terrorism-financing laws due to deposits made through the bank’s new smart ATMs.
CBA chief executive Ian Narev has confirmed he will not be stepping down as a result of the allegations, with CBA chair Catherine Livingstone telling the ABC that Narev “retains the full confidence of the board”.
Red Cross to avoid penalties for serious data breach
A data breach at Australia’s Red Cross which affected over 1.3 million Australians last October has been put down to human error by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), with both the Red Cross and its outsourced IT services company Precedent receiving no more than a stern talking to over the issue.
In a report on the incident, the OAIC found the breach “occurred without the authorisation or direct involvement of the Blood Service, and was outside the scope of Precedent’s contractual obligations to the Blood Service”.
The OAIC praised the Red Cross for responding “quickly and effectively” after being notified of the breach of the data file, which sat undiscovered in a public database for 50 days before Australian cyber security experts were alerted.
“The Commissioner believes the community can have confidence in the Blood Service’s commitment to the security of their personal information,” the report reads.
Potential penalties for breaching the Privacy Act can be up to $1.7 million for businesses and $340,000 for individuals.
Musk boosts business confidence in South Australia
South Australians were clearly impressed with Tesla founder Elon Musk’s commitment to help solve their power woes with a super battery, with the state now boasting the nation’s highest levels of business confidence.
Roy Morgan’s most recent business confidence survey saw the country’s faith in business conditions jump 4.7% in July, with 56.2% of businesses reporting now is a good time to invest in growth.
Analysts attributed the bounce to Musk’s promise to South Australians to facilitate a batter project in South Australia to address the energy crisis.
It wasn’t all good news, however, with a couple of sectors lagging against an otherwise positive outlook, says chief executive of Roy Morgan, Michelle Levine.
“There were two notable lagging industries – both Finance & Insurance and Administration & support services dipped below 100 against the overall trend and will be worth keeping an eye on to see whether they quickly bounce back,” she says.
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