REGULATORY WORMS OF WONDER.

It’s a pity these regulatory cat nappers do not realise Banker Driven Control Fraud – is a mega RISK to

the ECONOMY which will see millions of Australians left homeless.  Even the rental market cannot

cope as the Property Bubble is pumped up to BURSTING stage.  That will cost so much more than

anything climate change can throw at us. What Worms of Wonder they are:  Those corporate cops on

the beat!

ASIC is the CORPse regulator and there are plenty of aussie corpses.

APRA is the Nanny Reg of the Banking Cartel.

GREENS TRYING TO INFLUENCE PM TURNBULL AND SELLING OUT CONSUMER VICTIMS of BANK FRAUD:  GREENS NOT TO BE TRUSTED!!!!

Climate change is a financial risk, says APRA

Australian Financial Review Feb 18 2017 12:22 AM

Alice Uribe

The prudential regulator has for the first time publicly warned Australian financial institutions about the risks of climate change, calling on insurers, superannuation funds and banks to "rise to the challenge."

In a speech to the Insurance Council of Australia Annual Forum on Friday, Australian Prudential Regulation Authority executive board member Geoff Summerhayes upped the ante on the debate saying that climate change must be viewed as a risk management issue for business.

"The days of viewing climate change within a purely ethical, environmental or long-time frame have passed...While climate risks have been broadly recognised, they have often been seen as a future problem or a non-financial problem," Mr Summerhayes said.

Foreseeable and actionable

"The key point I want to make today, and that APRA wants to be explicit about, is that this is no longer the case. Some climate risks are distinctly 'financial' in nature. Many of these risks are foreseeable, material and actionable now. Climate risks also have potential system-wide implications that APRA and other regulators here and abroad are paying much closer attention to".

Kate Mackenzie, the head of finance and investment at The Climate Institute said that this is the first time an Australian financial authority has clearly indicated climate risk is a concern for financial institutions.

"This is a landmark speech for an Australian financial authority, although many of their international peers have been clear about the importance of the topic for some time," said.

"It's a very clear signal that climate change presents a foreseeable risk that must be considered and managed, and Mr Summerhayes made clear that perceived political sensitivity was no excuse for ignoring it."

Ms Mackenzie said that some of Australia's overseas peers had gone further in their warnings about climate change and it was important that action was taken fast.

In November last year Australia ratified the Paris Climate Agreement which has set up a binding global commitment to limit warming to between 1.5 and two degrees Celsius, and set up a pathway for more ambitious emissions reductions efforts.

The Bank of England Governor, Mark Carney said in a widely quoted speech in 2015 that the Paris Agreement 'brought the horizon forward on climate change' and 'put a premium on the ability of private markets to adjust'.

In his speech Mr Summerhayes said APRA would place a greater emphasis on stress testing for organisational and systemic resilience in the face of adverse shocks.

"It could be the case that, just as we would expect to see more sophisticated scenario-based analysis of climate risks at the firm level, we look at these risks as part of our system-wide stress testing," he said.

"To be clear, this does not mean suddenly elevating climate-related issues to the top of our priority list. But it does mean joining the wider conversation that is already going on around this issue – and being explicit that climate change is likely to have material, financial implications that should be carefully considered".

Mr Summerhayes acknowledged that there are a myriad of competing risk and regulatory pressures placed upon the entities which it regulates, but APRA expected that the financial sector rise to the challenge of climate change.

"We make no apologies for expecting regulated entities to rise to this challenge with us," he said.

Financial ecosystem

"These are shared responsibilities. When things go wrong, it reflects badly on all of us – regulators, entities, governments, and the entire financial ecosystem. For our part, we know that when regulators are slow-moving, or equivocal, it makes problems even worse."

The ICA's general manager of communications and media relations, Campbell Fuller said that it supports actions and policies that enhance community resilience to extreme weather, and may assist to reduce emissions.

"The ICA welcomes Geoff Summerhayes' call to begin a discussion about how insurers can disclose and manage their response to these risks. However investment decisions and strategies by ICA members are a matter for individual companies."