Australia’s key financial regulators to review global banking turmoil

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SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers will convene a meeting of the country’s top financial regulators to check how the latest volatility in global financial markets could affect the country, an official in the treasurer’s office said on Tuesday.

Australia’s Council of Financial Regulators (CFR) will meet on Thursday after Chalmers discussed the latest market turmoil in phone calls with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Tuesday and European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde overnight.

The CFR is made up of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, the Australian Treasury and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

“It’s clear from my conversations that international authorities are prepared to do what’s necessary to reassure markets at a time of uncertainty and volatility,” Chalmers said in a statement.

The discussions with key global financial officials come ahead of meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. from April 10 to 16, which Chalmers is expected to attend.

Coordinated action by global central banks and international financial authorities have helped ease some concerns but the volatility is contributing to uncertainty more generally in the global economic outlook, Chalmers said.

“We’re not immune to what’s coming at us from overseas, but our own economy and financial system are well regulated, well capitalised and well placed to respond to these challenges,” he said.

Chalmers said he had been speaking to the CEOs of the Big Four banks in Australia and gets briefed by authorities multiple times a day about the latest events in the markets.

Authorities around the world are on high alert for contagion among banks following the collapse of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank (NASDAQ:SBNY) and the emergency takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS.