Disgraced gambling giant Crown used its history of egregious law-breaking to argue down the third-largest corporate fine in Australian history, ABC reported. Last week, the Federal Court ordered the gambling giant to pay $450 million for at least 546 breaches of anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws between 2016 and 2022, an action brought by financial crimes agency AUSTRAC. With the company now owned by a private-equity firm, it is probably the last time such details of Crown's finances will be made public under the current owners.

Australia's corporate insolvency laws are facing extensive reforms in the near future, Mondaq reported. On 12 July 2023, the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Corporations and Financial Services (Committee) tabled its highly anticipated report into Corporate Insolvency in Australia (Report). In December 1988, the Australian Law Reform Commission (ALRC) published its General Insolvency Inquiry (ALRC Report 45), more commonly referred to as the Harmer Report, following a five-year review of Australia’s corporate and personal insolvency laws.

Australia's securities regulator said on Wednesday it had canceled the license of the local arm of collapsed U.S. cryptocurrency exchange FTX, effective from July 14, Reuters reported. Bahamas-headquartered FTX, once a star of the crypto industry with a $32 billion valuation in January 2023, filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection last November, saying it was unable to completely repay customers who had deposited funds on its exchange. The industry has since been reeling amid the scrutiny of global regulators, while FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces a criminal lawsuit by the U.S.

Australia's central bank decided to keep interest rates steady this month as policy was clearly restrictive and there was a risk a squeeze on household finances could lead to a sharp downturn and higher unemployment, Reuters reported. However, the bank retained a warning that some tightening may still be required to bring inflation to heel, wary that the wider effects on inflation from higher rents, weak productivity and higher electricity prices had not been fully captured.