The Big Lie of the Australian financial system is that it remained sound during the global financial crisis in 2008, due to the effective oversight of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA).
When the government and financial authorities assure you your deposits are guaranteed, don’t believe them. They have proven time and again that in a financial crash they will put the survival of banks and their powerful owners first. The latest example of this is a European Union move to amend existing “bail-in” legislation to enable bank regulators to freeze even bank deposits that are covered by a government guarantee.
Are federal MPs willing to vote for a bill that could allow the deposits of their constituents—individuals, businesses, non-profits—to be confiscated to prop up a failing bank?
The Citizens Electoral Council is calling on all concerned Australians to demand their elected MPs oppose the new draft bill giving the unaccountable bank regulator APRA dictatorial “crisis management” powers. Tell your MP that instead they should act now to prevent a banking crisis by passing a Glass-Steagall separation of deposit-taking banks from financial speculation.
In the wake of the collapse of European banks including Spain’s Banco Popular, two regional Italian banks, and the bail-in/bailout of the world’s oldest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Europe has been debating new powers to allow bank accounts to be frozen during a financial crisis for between 5 and 20 days.
On 1 January depositor “bail-in” came into effect across the European Union. Just in time for a new, rapidly building global financial crisis, the EU’s bail-in regime empowers financial authorities to confiscate money from bonds and deposits in order to save collapsing banks.
