APRA, ASIC to upgrade cyber security and data capability

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) have secured a combined $206.4 million for a range of technology programs of work.

The two financial regulators appear to have netted about $130 million over four years “to improve data capability and cyber security”.

The remainder of the funds appears to be an allocation made in the mid-year economic and fiscal outlook (MYEFO) at the end of last year for ASIC to “stabilise” business registers that previously came under the ATO’s remit.

The registers were part of a modernisation program that was axed after $530 million was spent, with only one public-facing result.

In the MYEFO, ASIC was handed responsibility and $75.6 million over four years “to stabilise existing business registers and examine stabilisation and uplift options for these registers.”

In last night’s budget, the government noted that the $206.4 million allocation “builds on” the MYEFO funding.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the cyber security related funding would be spent on APRA itself, or on its governance role in the financial sector.

The regulator has recently uncovered weaknesses in the sector, including third-party risks, via a “stocktake” of more than 300 banks, insurers and superannuation trustees, billed as “the largest study of its kind to be conducted by APRA.”