PM Edition: Here are the top 10 business articles on LiveNews.co.nz for September 30, 2026 – Full Text
1. Ping An Digital Bank Celebrates 6th Anniversary, Total Assets and Customer Deposits Both Surge Over 130% YoY, Net Interest Income Rises 55% YoY
September 29, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Demonstrated Full-Licence Advantages, Strengthened Fee Income Capabilities, Expanding into High-End Wealth Management Segment to Forge New Growth Engines, Deepening Trade Finance to Support Government Initiatives, Serving the Real Economy via Financial Services
- As of 30 June 2026, Ping An Digital Bank’s total assets exceeded HK$15.6 billion, while total customer deposits reached nearly HK$13.7 billion, both surging over 130% year-on-year.
- Capitalising on its full-licence advantage, investment commissions have emerged as a new driver for fee income, boosting core profitability with net interest income rising 55% year-on-year to HK$140 million.
- PingAnDB will continue to uphold its “Customer Experience First” vision, providing all retail customers with a user-friendly digital banking service. Meanwhile, the Bank will continuously deepen its wealth services and expand into the high-end wealth management to meet customers’ diversified asset allocation needs.
- Responding to the government’s initiative to “take forward ‘Finance+’ to serve the real economy,” Business Banking remains committed to serving trade SMEs. Leverages fintech and alternative data to strengthen trade finance, PingAnDB empowers trade SMEs and cross-border e-commerce in global expansion.
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 September 2026 – Ping An Digital Bank (International) Limited (“Ping An Digital Bank” / “PingAnDB”) enters its 6th anniversary with strong upward momentum and standout operational performance across key indicators. Total assets and customer deposits both surged over 130% year-on-year, while net interest income rose approximately 55% year-on-year to over HK$140 million. Following the branding revamp and the launch of investment services, Ping An Digital Bank has fully leveraged its full-licence advantages, making investment commissions a new growth engine for service fee revenue. Moving forward, Ping An Digital Bank will continue to uphold its “Customer Experience First” vision, delivering a seamless and all-in-one digital banking solution through a single app. PingAnDB will also elevate its wealth platform by introducing a broader suite of investment offerings and high-end wealth management services, assisting them with diversified asset allocation and management.
Since accelerating its retail banking expansion, Ping An Digital Bank has launched wealth and offline insurance services, driven business scale and strengthening core profitability. As of 30 June 2026, total assets surged 133% year-on-year to over HK$15.6 billion, while total customer deposits reached HK$13.7 billion, increased 131% year-on-year. Following the official launch of wealth services in March this year, PingAnDB has achieved initial success in opening new channels to boost fee and commission income. As of June 30, 2026, fee and commission income grew sevenfold year-on-year to HK$6.5 million, with service fee income expected to gradually become another growth engine of the PingAnDB’s revenue.
Mr. Ronald Iu, Chief Executive of Ping An Digital Bank, said, “Ping An Digital Bank has accelerated the expansion of its retail banking arm recently. As a rising star in retail banking, we adhere to our brand vision of ‘Always with You. Always Ahead.’ By delivering precise product and service strategies, we comprehensively meet customers’ needs, driving significant leaps in asset and deposit scale, with fee income set to become another key revenue driver for us. Furthermore, Ping An Digital Bank is set to elevate its wealth services. Centered on the “Customer Experience First” vision, the Bank will continuously diversify the suite of investment offerings and introduce high-end wealth management services , creating a digital wealth management experience that balances flexibility with professional expertise.”
Mr. Iu, added, “In Business Banking, we remain steadfast in our commitment to trade SMEs. By leveraging fintech and alternative data to strengthen trade finance, we actively respond to the government’s mandate to ‘leverage financial services to support the real economy.’ As of 30 June 2026, our loan assets grew steadily, with total loans reaching HK$4.14 billion. Moving forward, we will continue to navigate global expansion for trade SMEs and cross-border e-commerce, further deepening trade finance application scenarios to serve as a robust pillar for SMEs.”
Ping An Digital Bank’s Retail Banking centers its design on usability with a “Customer Experience First” approach. Backed by Ping An Group’s strengths and its full-licence advantages, PingAnDB actively builds an exclusive financial ecosystem and integrated financial platform. Customers can enjoy a one-stop suite of financial services—including deposits, foreign exchange, cross-border remittances, wealth, and insurance—all via a single app. Additionally, Ping An Digital Bank offers a dual-strength wealth services feature enabling retail banking customers to seamlessly switch funds between investments and savings deposits. US stock trades carry a flat brokerage fee of USD0.881 per transaction regardless of transaction value or share count. Combined with a USD savings yield of up to 3.28% p.a.2, customers can park liquidity to earn interest and pivot instantly when market opportunities arise. Together with comprehensive online and offline insurance services, Ping An Digital Bank delivers smart financial experiences with a human touch.
While deepening retail financial services, as the first digital bank tailored for SMEs, Ping An Digital Bank extends its financial capability into the business banking sector, comprehensively covering business banking account, cross-border remittance, currency exchange, and loan services. As a core supporter of trade enterprises, Ping An Digital Bank has unlocked the potential of commercial data over the years to revamp account opening and credit assessment process, solving previous pain points of SMEs to achieve fast and accurate evaluations. This fully empowers enterprises to capture global market opportunities and builds a robust digital financial ecosystem.
For the interim report 2026 of Ping An Digital Bank, please visit https://www.pingandb.com/en/financial-report.html
1 Brokerage fee excludes any custody fee, securities deposit charges, nominee services fee and any third-party transaction charges such as transaction levy, stamp duty and trading fee, handling fee, securities management fee, transfer fee, capital gain tax and SEC Fee, etc.
2 Applicable only to USD savings deposits between USD 15,000 and USD 60,000 and subject to the “USD Savings Interest Rate Offer” terms and conditions. Interest on USD deposits will be calculated on a daily basis on a 360-day year and is determined at the Bank’s discretion from time to time.
| USD Savings Balance | Interest Rate (p.a.) |
| First US$14,999.99 | 0.50% |
| US$15,000 to 60,000 | 3.28% |
| Above US$60,000 | 2.00% |
Hashtag: #平安數字銀行 #PingAnDB #中期業績 #InterimResults
Ping An Digital Bank
Ping An Digital Bank (International) Limited (“Ping An Digital Bank,” “PingAnDB”) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lufax Holding Ltd (“Lufax”) (SEHK: 6623; NYSE: LU) and a member of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (“Ping An”) (SEHK: 2318; SSE: 601318). Ping An Digital Bank was granted a banking licence by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in May 2019 to offer retail banking and business banking services. Backed by Ping An’s advanced technology, Ping An Digital Bank is elevating banking experience, serving customers in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area, establishing itself as Ping An Group’s integrated financial platform in Hong Kong.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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2. Countdown to 2037: Strategic Public-Private Agenda Unleashes Blueprint to Double Thailand’s Economic Growth
September 30, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Building on discussions at the Bangkok Business Summit 2026, the agenda brings together government, private-sector and international perspectives around a common priority: translating structural reform into investment, productivity and long-term competitiveness, while strengthening Thailand’s readiness for a greater regional economic role ahead of its 2028 ASEAN Chairmanship.
Highlights from the Bangkok Business Summit 2026 on Thailand’s roadmap towards high-income status by 2037.
Geopolitical Stability and Macro Benchmarks
As global supply chains fracture and geopolitical tensions reshape risk profiles, Thailand is positioning itself as a neutral, secure haven for multinational capital.
“Global investors are prioritizing economic security alongside operational efficiency,” said Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas. “Thailand presents a timely, stable haven where targeted capital can stimulate short-term activity while permanently upgrading our long-term productivity.”
However, multilateral institutions emphasized that achieving high-income status demands aggressive economic acceleration.
“Thailand must boost its GDP per capita growth from the post-COVID average of 2.2% to 5.4% annually over the next decade,” stated Carlos Felipe Jaramillo, World Bank Vice President for East Asia and Pacific. “Execution must be decisive. Capital must be funneled into seven key growth engines—including smart electronics, EVs, and digital services—while protecting critical infrastructure like the flood-prone Chao Phraya River basin.”
From Dialogue to Delivery: Bangkok Business Summit White Paper
Building on the Summit’s discussions, the forthcoming Bangkok Business Summit White Paper, developed in strategic partnership with PwC, will focus on translating Thailand’s economic ambitions into execution.
The agenda identifies the next 24 months, from 2026 to 2028, as a critical window for strengthening Thailand’s longer-term economic trajectory. It focuses on directing resources towards higher-productivity sectors, reducing regulatory friction and introducing clearer mechanisms to measure progress and accountability.
This execution-focused approach is reinforced by closer public-private coordination across seven target business sectors, supported by key enabling areas including infrastructure, digital technology and AI, energy and finance. The broader objective is to strengthen investment-led growth while ensuring that new investment creates opportunities for domestic enterprises and SMEs to participate in emerging supply chains.
Inclusive Reform and Financial Restructuring
To transition from low-cost assembly to an investment-led economy, domestic leaders are restructuring local financial mechanics and supply chains.
“Assessing our structural reform progress today, we sit at roughly a five out of ten,” noted Payong Srivanich, Chairman of the Joint Standing Committee on Commerce, Industry and Banking (JSCCIB). “We must urgently shift commercial banking liquidity away from stagnant legacy sectors and into future growth engines.”
To prevent technological disruption from worsening structural inequality, Srivanich advocated a “brotherhood” model anchored in the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. Under this approach, major corporate leaders are tasked with upskilling and reskilling upstream and downstream SME supply chains to ensure balanced growth across the entire value chain.
This emphasis on inclusion extends to connecting new investment and global market opportunities with domestic businesses, enabling Thai SMEs and local enterprises to participate more fully in the new economy and supporting broader distribution of economic opportunities.
Global Governance and Environmental Resilience
Serving as a curtain-raiser for the 2026 IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bangkok, hosted under the theme “Thailand’s New Horizons: Empowering People, Building Resilience,” the country is establishing forward-looking global standards. Key priorities include the “Bangkok Blueprint” to tackle cyber fraud and illegal financial flows.
Simultaneously, long-term expansion depends on confronting severe environmental vulnerabilities. The World Bank urged immediate climate-resilient investments in the flood-prone Chao Phraya River basin, which generates 66% of national GDP, alongside scaling solar and clean energy capacity to curb fossil fuel import dependencies.
By aligning domestic productivity and climate adaptation today, and showcasing these priorities at the upcoming IMF-World Bank Group Annual Meetings in Bangkok, Thailand is asserting the economic resilience needed to lead broader regional integration when it takes the helm as ASEAN Chair in 2028.
Hashtag: #JSCCIBFoundation
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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3. MIHAS 2026 Delivers RM6.78 Billion In Sales, Expanding Opportunities For Malaysian Businesses And SMEs
September 29, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
The achievement also exceeded the RM5.0 billion sales target by RM1.78 billion, or 35.5% increase, further reinforcing MIHAS’ role as a key halal marketplace for connecting Malaysian businesses with international markets and translating trade engagements into commercial opportunities.
Commenting on the outcome, Dato’ Indera Abu Bakar Yusof, Chief Executive Officer of MATRADE, said, “MIHAS 2026 demonstrates that the platform is not only growing in terms of sales, but is also creating greater opportunities for Malaysian businesses, particularly Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), to access international markets. We remain committed to strengthening SMEs and Mid-Tier Companies (MTCs) to expand into global markets especially the emerging and non-traditional markets.”
“The RM6.78 billion in sales achieved at MIHAS 2026 represents valuable opportunities. With the integration of Agentic AI, MIHAS is evolving into a more connected and digitally enabled trade facilitation ecosystem, helping Malaysian companies identify potential buyers, build meaningful business relationships and pursue new export opportunities beyond the exhibition floor. Under the MADANI Digital Trade Platform (MDTP), we shall provide Malaysian exporters with continuous connectivity with global buyers and support them in securing sustainable export opportunities,” he added.
MIHAS 2026 attracted 69,104 visitors from 93 countries, up from 50,340 visitors in 2025 — an increase of 18,764 visitors or 37.3%, the highest since its inception in 2004. The event also brought together participating exhibitors and INSP buyers from 58 countries, further strengthening MIHAS’ international reach and appeal as a global halal trade exposition.
The growth was supported by strong performance across the key components of MIHAS. The International Sourcing Programme (INSP) generated RM4.02 billion, compared with RM3.63 billion in 2025, representing an increase of RM394.5 million or 10.9%. INSP facilitates structured business meetings between Malaysian sellers and international buyers, creating targeted opportunities for sourcing, business matching and potential export transactions.
Meanwhile, the MIHAS Exhibition recorded approximately RM1.99 billion, compared with RM1.89 billion in 2025, an increase of RM103.9 million or 5.5%. Among the top products driving exhibition sales were processed food and confectionery, food technology and packaging, frozen food, and fertilisers and agrochemicals, reflecting the diverse range of halal products showcased at MIHAS.
Creating More Opportunities for Malaysian SMEs
Importantly, the success of MIHAS is also reflected in its sustained contribution to Malaysian SMEs.
At MIHAS Exhibition 2026, Malaysian SMEs generated RM620 million in sales, compared with RM557 million in 2025, representing an increase of approximately RM63 million or 11.3%. This builds on the strong growth recorded over the past six editions, with SME participation increasing from 64 companies in 2021 to 339 companies in 2026, representing a significant 429.7% increase.
The strong performance of Malaysian SMEs comes against the backdrop of Malaysia’s growing halal export sector. Malaysia’s halal exports reached RM68.52 billion in 2025, an increase of 10.9% from RM61.79 billion in 2024. Under RMK13, Malaysia has set a target of RM80 billion in halal exports, highlighting the significant opportunity for Malaysian companies, particularly SMEs, to further expand into international markets.
MIHAS 2026 continues to support this ambition by providing Malaysian SMEs with access to international buyers, business matching, sourcing opportunities and digital tools to expand their market reach and strengthen their export capabilities.
AI Transforming Business Connections
The 2026 edition also marked a significant step forward in MIHAS’ digital transformation through the integration of Agentic AI.
More than 22,000 AI-assisted business appointments were generated during MIHAS 2026, demonstrating how AI is transforming the way businesses connect and pursue new trade opportunities.
Of these AI-assisted appointments, 324 matches reported RM28 million in sales associated with these completed AI-assisted appointments.
Importantly, the AI platform will continue to operate until 2027, enabling participating businesses to continue connecting, engaging with potential buyers and pursuing new trade opportunities beyond the four-day exhibition.
Overall, MIHAS 2026 demonstrates how the trade platform is evolving beyond a conventional trade exhibition — combining strong sales performance, growing international participation, SME development and AI-powered business matching to create a more connected and digitally enabled trade facilitation ecosystem for Malaysian businesses.
Hashtag: #MIHAS2026
Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) 2026
Recognised as a Guinness World Records holder and hosted by the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) with the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation (MATRADE) as organiser, MIHAS now covers 14 sectors, from food and beverages and pharmaceuticals to Islamic finance, modest fashion, personal care, technology, services, and Muslim-friendly tourism. The 22nd edition of MIHAS, themed “Shaping Trust, Driving Resilience”, will focus on regulated-by-design governance and technology-enabled trade.
MATRADE
MATRADE’s primary role is to assist Malaysian exporters in developing and expanding their export markets. Aligned with Malaysia’s commercial diplomacy efforts, MATRADE is the nation’s trade facilitator and champion of Malaysian-made products and services on the global stage.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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4. HKSTP Leads Delegation to Germany and Austria
September 29, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Forging new Hong Kong–Europe pathways in AI, New Industralisation and smart city innovation with German Industry and Commerce and ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 September 2026 – Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP), in partnership with German Industry and Commerce (GIC) and ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA, and supported by the Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau, InvestHK and HKETO Berlin, led a delegation of eight Hong Kong Science Park companies to Germany and Austria from 21 to 25 September 2026 for a focused programme of business matching, ecosystem exchange and institutional engagement across Munich, Vienna and Graz. Bringing together government, industry, academia and innovation ecosystem partners, the mission deepened engagement with leading stakeholders, created new opportunities for cross-border collaboration and commercialisation in artificial intelligence (AI), new industralisation, and smart city, and reinforced Hong Kong’s role as a preferred platform for innovation exchange between Europe and Asia.
Professor Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, delivered a speech at the Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 (AAIC) in Vienna, Austria. He had an exchange with the HKSTP delegation to learn about their innovative solutions.
The delegation marked a major step forward in HKSTP’s growing engagement in Central Europe. As HKSTP’s first market-focused mission to Germany, Europe’s largest AI market and a leading enterprise technology hub, it built on earlier collaboration with ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA, including GO AUSTRIA Spring 2025 and 2026 and the renowned ViennaUP Festival, as well as more recent joint efforts with partners in Germany and Austria under Global Connect and the Global Innovation Exchange. The ongoing efforts created practical pathways for Hong Kong companies to explore partnerships, validate demand and expand into key European markets.
A key highlight was HKSTP’s participation in the Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference 2026 (AAIC) in Vienna, Austria, to connect with key industry partners and investors for potential business collaboration. Professor Sun Dong, Secretary for Innovation, Technology and Industry, delivered a speech titled “AAIC-Talk: Applied AI in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area: Innovation, Industrial Transformation and Opportunities for Collaboration with Austria”at theAustria’s flagship international AI business conference.He shared Hong Kong has elevated AI into a core industry and is emerging as one of the world’s most dynamic innovation and technology (I&T) centres. He also invited Austria to partner in shaping AI’s next chapter, and highlighting opportunities for collaboration between Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and Austria. During the Conference, Professor Sun had a brief exchange with park companies from the delegation participating in the Conference to learn about their innovative solutions.
Mr Eric Or, Chief Ecosystem Development Officer of HKSTP, said, “HKSTP is committed to helping innovators scale beyond borders. Our inaugural delegation to Germany and the continuous connection with Austria highlights the value of strategic international engagement in opening doors for park companies to connect with leading industry, academic and investors in Europe. It also reflects Hong Kong’s unique role as a gateway for cross-border collaboration, underpinned by its distinct strengths as a super-connector and super value-adder. As HKSTP continues to expand its global outreach to further strengthen Hong Kong’s innovation links with global markets, and reinforce the city’s position as an international innovation and technology hub.”
The delegation began in Munich, focusing on Germany’s industrial AI and enterprise innovation ecosystem, and engaging institutions including Chamber of commerce and industry for Munich and upper Bavaria (IHK), Siemens AI Lab, and the European Union’s top Technical University of Munich (TUM). Discussions centred on industrial AI, advanced manufacturing, technology translation and cross-border collaboration. The high potential tech firms continued the week-long journey in Vienna and Graz, connected with leading Austrian research, industry and innovation organisations, including the leading Graz University of Technology (TU Graz), Austrian Institute of Technology and more.
Highlighted innovations from the delegation:
- GenAI-Powered Marketing – Amber International Holding Limited introduced MIA, its new agentic AI marketing platform designed to monitor markets, generate on-brand content and support distribution workflows with human approval.
- Let AI run enterprises. Let AI do business – Echronos AI Group, a China-based innovator in industrial-grade AI Agentic OS, leverages the HKSTP ecosystem and Hong Kong’s global connectivity as a gateway for international expansion. The company introduced its flagship JovaAI platform to European industry leaders. Powered by proprietary semantic and multi-agent orchestration technologies, JovaAI coordinates complex enterprise workflows, from inquiry-to-quote orchestration and cross-border customs planning to dynamic production rescheduling.
- End-to-end AI Talent Solution – Neufast offers corporate AI strategy consulting and technical implementation for an agentic AI platform covering candidate sourcing, performance appraisals, and leadership development. It is expanding in Europe through partnerships with SAP SuccessFactors for enterprise business transformation and TÜV Rheinland for ISO27001 certification, with the support of the Austrian government’s Go Austria Plus programme by the Global Incubator Network Austria (GIN) and Austrian Research Promotion Agency (FFG).
Together, these engagements in Germany and Austria deepened HKSTP’s ties with the regions’ innovation ecosystem and opened new opportunities for collaboration in applied AI, robotics, smart production and commercialisation between Hong Kong and Europe.
Appendix: List of park companies in the HKSTP’s delegation
- Amber International Holding Limited
- Cogniser Infotech Ltd
- Echronos AI Group
- Haircosys Limited
- IGRAPH TECHNOLOGY LIMITED
- Neufast Limited
- Robocore Technology Limited
- Westwell Technology (Hong Kong) Limited
Hashtag: #HKSTP
Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation
As an ecosystem orchestrator, HKSTP provides end-to-end support to attract and nurture talent, accelerate commercialisation and help technology ventures scale. Its innovation infrastructure spans over 240 hectares covering Hong Kong Science Park in Pak Shek Kok, three modern InnoParks in Tai Po, Tseung Kwan O and Yuen Long, and InnoCentre in Kowloon Tong, advancing Hong Kong’s vision for new industrialisation and smart manufacturing.
Hong Kong Science Park Shenzhen Branch in Futian, Shenzhen, strengthens cross-border collaboration by connecting Hong Kong, the Chinese Mainland and global innovation networks and propels Chinese innovators onto the world stage, while also delivering comprehensive GBA landing support to accelerate cross-border success for local and international ventures.
As HKSTP enters its next chapter with strong foundations, it continues to deepen impact, elevate quality and create value for innovators. As an ecosystem built to lead change, HKSTP is empowering Hong Kong to define what comes next in innovation, growth and opportunity.
More information about HKSTP is available at www.hkstp.org.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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5. How retailers can protect personal information
September 29, 2026
Source: Privacy Commissioner
28 Sept 2026, 14:00
Retailers have obligations to protect personal information under the Privacy Act 2020. This means you need to know what personal information you are collecting and why, be open with your customers and employees, have a plan to keep the information safe, and delete it when it’s no longer required.
This guidance also includes examples about how retailers interact with the Health Information Privacy Code, for example pharmacists.
We are currently developing further comprehensive retail sector guidance about the use of Facial Recognition Technology (FRT) and other biometric technologies. We don’t yet have a date for release but keep an eye on our website.
Collecting personal information
When collecting personal information as a retailer you need to:
Data minimisation
A key safeguard for protecting personal information is the idea of data minimisation. This is about only collecting and holding the information you really need.
Before you ask people for their personal information, think carefully about the reason you are collecting it. The more information you hold and the longer you hold it for increases the risk and the harm that could occur in the case of a privacy breach.
You should never keep information just in case you may need it in the future. It is important your business has a retention policy on how long information is kept for and a secure process for disposing of information once is not longer needed.
For example, as a supermarket, you might view drivers’ licences when verifying the age of a customer buying alcohol, but you shouldn’t need to collect or retain driver licence information in order to fulfil this purpose. However, you might collect and retain the name and address of a customer to issue a membership card or contact them with deals.
Collection – retail sector examples
Jewellery store collects CVs
CVs contain personal information like your name, address, contact details, and employment or education history.
A local jewellery store is reviewing the way they collect personal information and whether this is in line with the Privacy Act’s collection rules. They assess that they comply with the collection rules based on the following practises:
- IPP1: their reason for collecting the CVs is to be able to hire staff to work in their store.
- IPP2: they collect CVs directly from the individuals themselves via email or physical drop-off.
- IPP3: when CVs are dropped off in person, the duty manager is called to receive it. The store manager tells the person about their vacancies and how long the CV will be held on file for, and that only the owner will view CVs in order to make a hiring decision. Once the recruitment process has been finalised, CVs are then securely disposed of. This information is also passed on via auto-reply email for CVs emailed.
- IPP3A: the owner collects personal information about the job applicant from a referee (and not the individual directly). The individual was made aware of this collection when the owner asked them to provide referee details.
- IPP4: they collect information in a way that is lawful, fair, and not unreasonably intrusive, for example they only contact referees that the applicant has nominated.
Boutique clothing store
New owners have recently bought a local boutique clothing store. The new owners want to set up an online store to widen their sales reach. To manage online sales, they will need to collect personal information from their customers, such as name, contact details, and delivery address to process deliveries.
When thinking about the rules around collecting information they assess the following:
- IPP1: the reason for collecting personal information is to advertise their product, or communicate about special promotions, as well as to manage the purchase and delivery of products.
- IPP2: The store collects this information directly from the person it’s about.
- IPP3: The website field where people enter their personal information links to their privacy statement discussing how the information will be used and whether personal information will be shared with any third parties.
- IPP3A: The new owners also acquired the existing customer database in the sale. Because of this they also need to think about their obligations under IPP3A for indirect collection of personal information. Before selling the business, the previous owners informed their customers that the names, contact details, and addresses they held on file would be transferred to the new owners and that customers retained the right to access and correct this personal information. The previous owners provided the new owners with evidence of the communication sent to their customers, and the new owners were comfortable that the individuals had already been made aware of the indirect collection. Both the previous and new owners communicated with the customers in the database to give them the opportunity to unsubscribe if they don’t want to remain in the database.
- IPP4: They collect personal information fairly and are transparent about what they are collecting, why they’re collecting it, and how they’ll use it. They only collect contact details, rather than more sensitive personal information about family, income, and spending habits. They don’t obtain information by coercing people or through deception (e.g. offering a prize that doesn’t exist). When asking if a customer is part of their loyalty system, they ask for the customer’s name and one more confirming detail e.g. phone number or email to verify the individual.
Local pharmacy
Pharmacies collect lots of health information to provide medicine to people. Health information is sensitive personal information which means more care needs to be given to ensure that it is protected effectively. The Health Information Privacy Code 2020 (HIPC) creates rules around how health information is handled by health agencies.
A local pharmacy is reviewing their privacy practices. When looking into the collection rules under the HIPC, they assess the following:
- Rule 1: Their reason for collecting health information is to provide medicine to people and information about how to use them.
- Rule 2: Rule 2 says that information must be collected from the person directly unless an exception applies. Pharmacies often collect peoples’ health information indirectly through scripts sent by General Practitioners (GPs). Exceptions to Rule 2 include when an individual authorises their information to be collected from somewhere else as long as the individual has been made aware of the required information under Rule 3A, or when collecting from the individual’s representative, or when it is not reasonably practicable in the circumstances.
- Rule 3: The pharmacy has a privacy statement it has on display on their website and physically in-store. This outlines that health information is being collected, the reason it’s being collected, who will see the information, the pharmacy’s contact information, that the collection of certain information is mandatory in order to supply medicine and that if the information is not collected, they are unable to fulfil their service, as well as the right to access and correct health information under rules 6 and 7.
- Rule 3A: Before the GP sends the script to the pharmacy, they ask the patient which pharmacy they’d like them to send it to. This informs the patient that their information will be sent to a certain location. When the patient picks up their medication from the pharmacy, the pharmacy also provides the patient with the information that was sent by the GP.
- Rule 4: When the individual comes to collect a script from the pharmacy, the pharmacy verifies the individual by asking for their address and date of birth. The pharmacy staff are careful to be discreet when asking for this information, or when discussing certain medications with the individual to ensure this doesn’t unnecessarily disclose medical conditions to other staff and customers in the pharmacy.
Read our guidance on the collection of health information.
Storage and security (IPP5)
Organisations must ensure there are safeguards in place that are reasonable in the circumstances to prevent loss, misuse or disclosure of personal information.
System errors, scams, and employee browsing can all lead to a security failure. A secure IT network will help protect the personal information your organisation works with from hacks, viruses, and malware. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) provides cybersecurity guidance that will help you keep personal information safe in your network.
The controls available to you in these scenarios can be categorised as:
- Physical – for example, building access, physical documents, and mobile device protection.
- Technical – for example, IT systems and cyber security.
- Organisational – for example, policies and procedures, staff behaviour, training, and awareness.
Often, you will need to use a combination of controls from all three categories to ensure you have a robust security system in place to reduce the likelihood of breaches.
What steps are appropriate will depend entirely on the context of your organisation, including:
- How sensitive is the personal information involved?
- What are you using the personal information for?
- What security measures are available, and how will using these measures impact on your organisation’s functions?
- What might the consequences be for the individual if the information is not kept secure?
Read our guidance on Security and Internal Access Controls for more information on preventative controls, secure storage and software, and employee browsing.
Storage and security – retail sector examples
Jewellery store assesses storage of CVs
A jewellery store receives CVs from people both physically by drop-offs and digitally via email.
The owner of the store usually stores the digital CVs in a folder on their personal laptop and the physical CVs in the drawer under a till. After an increase in digital CVs being received, the owner has decided to review how they manage them.
They assess that their physical storage of the CVs does not offer enough security and decide to digitise CVs that are being assessed or retained for upcoming positions, securely disposing of the physical copies immediately (such as shredding or using a secure destruction service) and deleting the digital copies once they’re no longer needed to fill roles. Only the owner who is in charge of hiring new staff needs to see CVs. They will store all CVs in a password protected file requiring multi-factor authentication on their laptop which is only accessed by the manager.
Boutique clothing store uses customer information
Before their online shop goes live, they go through the IPPs to make sure that they comply with their obligations for protecting personal information. For their compliance with IPP5, they assess that all personal information will be stored electronically through a third-party provider. The organisation understands that they are responsible for anything that happens to the personal information held by the third party, so they perform due diligence to ensure that the third party has security measures in place to protect against malicious actors or other unauthorised access and so the third party knows when to notify the store of any information breaches. We have guidance on what to do before using a third-party provider. They also put other measures in place so only staff that need to access information (i.e. to process online orders) will be able to do so via individual log-ins. The third-party provider offers the ability to audit access to personal information, and the shop undertakes spot audits to ensure that staff aren’t accessing it for other reasons. Staff are regularly reminded about this policy.
Local pharmacy
To comply with rule 5, health agencies need to consider what risks there are for the health information they hold, make a plan to address those risks and do what is necessary to carry it out. Read our guidance on storage and security for health information.
The local pharmacy uses a Pharmacy Management System where they receive scripts and other information from health agencies such as GPs and hospitals. This system enables limited access to information, and they provide regular privacy training to their staff on how to protect personal information.
Retention and disposal (IPP9)
You must not hold personal information for longer than is required for using the information for a lawful purpose. This means your retention policy will depend on your business’ particular context, for example, the purpose for collection and use.
How to manage retention as an organisation
We recommend setting up retention and disposal systems which could operate alongside other processes such as stocktaking.
These may look like:
- Have a clear process outlined in a policy: Your organisation should have a clear process to support the lawful retention and secure disposal of information.
- Different retention periods for different information: You also need to ensure that retention periods can be tailored to different circumstances.
- Regular review: Retention and disposal policies should be regularly reviewed to ensure that they are fit for purpose and appropriately followed in practice.
- Automated deletion: If possible, set up your systems to action your retention and disposal decisions in an automated way. Not doing so is a common cause of over-retention issues in organisations.
- Manual deletion: If there is no ability to automatically dispose of personal information, you will need to consider other ways, such as regular audits or manual review of the information you hold.
- Effective disposal: You need to consider how to effectively dispose of personal information so that it is unable to be retrieved.
Retention and disposal – retail sector examples
Jewellery store assesses how long to hold onto CVs
While thinking about the security of CVs they collect, the owner also looks into how long they should hold onto CVs for. Since retention of personal information is tied to the purpose they collected it for, they think about the original purpose of collecting CVs – to fill vacant roles. The rate of staff turnover means that the jewellery store is hiring regularly. It receives a high volume of CVs, so they tend to only look at CVs that have been dropped off recently when looking to fill roles. Because of these factors, they decide to delete CVs after three months.
Petrol station retains images of suspected shop lifters
A petrol station has experienced an increase in theft over the last month. When this occurs, they review the security camera footage and create a still image of the suspect where the footage is clear they have stolen something. These are reported to Police. The petrol station makes sure that only authorised staff can access and view the images for safety purposes, such as behind the counter where customers cannot see. Until now, the petrol station has collected a large number of these still images without getting rid of them, so they decide to set-up a rule to ensure that they delete them once they’re no longer needed. The images are given dates and manually deleted after two years, which is also when the security footage is deleted.
It is an offence to delete personal information if this information has been requested by the individual. Because of this, the petrol station checks that there aren’t live access requests before footage is deleted. Agencies must not deliberately delete or allow personal information (for example still photos or CCTV footage) to be deleted knowing a request for that information has been made. To do so is a criminal offence under the Privacy Act.
Local pharmacy
In line with Health Act regulations, the pharmacy’s Pharmacy Management System allows for automated deletion of scripts after a certain amount of time. The pharmacy has a policy that any physically printed scripts are to be securely destroyed once no longer needed to provide medicine to someone. This is communicated to staff in the regular privacy training sessions.
Where to go for more
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/29/how-retailers-can-protect-personal-information/
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6. TrendAI™ Extends the NVIDIA Agent Safety Platform with Threat Intelligence and Full AI Factory Security
September 29, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
TrendAI Vision One
pairs hardware-level detection on NVIDIA BlueField DPUs and network security with Zero Day Initiative threat intelligence, helping enterprises safely move agent fleets from pilot to production
HONG KONG SAR – Media OutReach Newswire – 29 September 2026 – TrendAI, the global leader in AI security and business unit from Trend Micro Incorporated (TYO: 4704; TSE: 4704), today announced its support for the NVIDIA Agent Safety Platform, NVIDIA’s full-stack infrastructure for running autonomous AI agents safely at enterprise scale. As organizations move autonomous, self-evolving agents into production, TrendAI and NVIDIA are aligned on a clear principle: no single control makes an agent secure. Security must be built into every layer the agent depends on.
AI agents are made up of three core components: the model that reasons, the harness that orchestrates the agent and its sub-agents, and the tools and data the agent can reach. Together, they let an agent hold credentials, remember context across sessions and act on production systems without a human approving each step. As enterprises scale from a handful of pilots to fleets of agents spanning teams and business units, security is now a critical control and often becomes the deciding factor in whether agentic AI reaches production.
The NVIDIA Agent Safety Platform places authority in the infrastructure beneath the agent. According to NVIDIA, OpenShell enforces policy outside the agent’s execution environment, where it cannot be prompted away or bypassed, while NVIDIA BlueField-4 DPUs and NVIDIA DOCA add a host-independent security layer in silicon. TrendAI complements that enforcement layer with the intelligence that informs what the policy should be, the visibility to see what agents are doing, and the threat detection and response to act on it.
“Agentic AI is the most significant shift in enterprise technology in a generation, and security needs and guardrails are in place to keep the agents aligned with the intentions of the organization,” said Rachel Jin, Chief Platform and Business Officer, Head of TrendAI. “Security can’t sit in one place. It has to cover the model, the harness, and every tool and data source an agent touches. NVIDIA is building the boundary that determines what an agent can do. TrendAI brings the threat intelligence and oversight that tell security teams what that boundary should be, and what is happening inside it. Together, we give organizations a practical path to scale agentic AI securely.”
How TrendAI supports the NVIDIA Agent Safety Platform
TrendAI Vision One extends NVIDIA’s agent safeguards across the whole AI factory, covering agents, models, containers, storage and networks on one platform:
- Model protection. Inline inspection of prompts and responses blocks prompt injection and jailbreaks and redacts sensitive data before it leaks.
- Harness and tool governance. Security teams control which tools and MCP servers agents can reach, inspect every tool call, and analyze how skills and AI artifacts behave at runtime.
- Data and identity controls. TrendAI Vision One finds and classifies the sensitive data that feeds AI, stops agents from reaching data they shouldn’t, extends file security and data loss prevention to the files agents read and write, and strips excess privilege from agents and other non-human identities.
- Hardware-rooted detection and response. Using NVIDIA BlueField DPU and DOCA telemetry, TrendAI Vision One detection stays trustworthy even if the host OS is compromised, and correlates AI signals with endpoint, network, and identity telemetry so a hijacked agent cannot move laterally unseen.
Together, TrendAI and NVIDIA are leading the future of AI with proactive security designed to inspire innovation and eliminate risk.
Learn more
For more on why agent security has to extend beyond the model, read Rachel Jin’s blog, Beyond Model Alignment: Securing Every Layer of the AI Agent. Learn how TrendAI Vision One secures enterprise AI here.
https://www.trendaisecurity.com
https://www.linkedin.com/company/trendai-security
https://x.com/trendaisecurity
https://www.facebook.com/trendaisecurity/
Hashtag: #trendai #trendaivisionone #visionone #trendmicro #nvidia
About TrendAI
, the global AI security leader and enterprise business unit of Trend Micro, empowers organizations with full AI visibility and consolidated security that inspires confidence, drives innovation, and eliminates risk. Trusted by the largest enterprises and governments across 185 countries, TrendAI secures the entire organization, from identities to infrastructure to data. Global Fortune 500 companies rely on TrendAI to cut risk and stop threats up to 3 months earlier, powered by world-leading threat and attack intelligence.
Through deep ecosystem partnerships with market leaders like NVIDIA, Anthropic, AWS, Google, and Microsoft, TrendAI empowers your organization to securely drive forward at the speed of AI. AI Fearlessly. Learn more at trendaisecurity.com.
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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7. Skyro Obtains Moneylending Licence in Malaysia Following Success in the Philippines
September 29, 2026
Source: Media Outreach
Founded in 2022, Skyro has already established a strong presence in the Philippines, where it uses an AI-powered credit-scoring model designed to serve customers who may be underserved by traditional banks. Since its founding, the company has disbursed more than USD 600 million in loans, expanded its user base to more than 7 million and reached operating break-even in the first half of 2026.
Skyro plans to adapt the business model that has proven successful in the Philippines to the Malaysian market. The company enters Malaysia as the country’s consumer credit sector is undergoing significant regulatory reform, following the introduction of the Consumer Credit Act 2025 and the establishment of the Consumer Credit Commission.
Arsen Liametov, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Skyro, said:
“We use advanced AI-based scoring tools to provide convenient and intuitive credit products to people underserved by traditional banks. Our success in the Philippines gives us confidence in this approach, which we plan to adapt for other markets across Southeast Asia and beyond.”
With a population of around 35 million, Malaysia represents an important market for the expansion of digital financial services. While most of the population has access to bank accounts, consumers with limited credit histories or without verified income may find it difficult to obtain traditional bank loans. In the Philippines, Skyro uses AI and alternative data to assess creditworthiness, and it intends to apply a similar approach in Malaysia that has been adapted to local conditions and regulatory requirements.
Nasim Aliev, Co-founder and Co-CEO of Skyro, said:
“Ambitions shouldn’t have to wait. Across Southeast Asia, we see the same pattern: hardworking people are held back not by a lack of effort but by a temporary cash gap standing between them and a real opportunity. In Malaysia, we plan to develop credit products that give people a solution to this challenge while ensuring full control and transparency over their spending.”
Skyro plans to enter the Malaysian market with cash loans and intends to introduce further credit products in Malaysia over time. Skyro has also announced plans to expand into other markets, including Saudi Arabia, and to build an ecosystem of financial products.
Hashtag: #Skyro
About Skyro
As of 2026, Skyro has a registered user base of more than 7 million and a credit portfolio exceeding USD 200 million. The company’s ambition is to become a leading full-spectrum financial services group across high-potential markets by combining capability proven at scale with a commitment to building each business around the needs of the market it serves.
https://www.skyro.io/skyro-story
The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.
– Published and distributed with permission of Media-Outreach.com.
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8. Morningstar DBRS Confirms Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited’s Long-Term Issuer Rating at AA, Stable Trend
September 29, 2026
Source: Morningstar DBRS
DBRS Ratings Limited (Morningstar DBRS) confirmed its credit ratings on Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ or the Group), including the Long-Term Issuer Rating at AA and the Short-Term Issuer Rating at R-1 (high). The trend on all credit ratings is Stable. The Group’s Intrinsic Assessment (IA) is aa (low) and the Support Assessment is SA2, which reflects the generally supportive regulatory framework and Morningstar DBRS’ expectation of timely systemic support given ANZ’s importance to the financial system in Australia. This results in a one-notch uplift to the Issuer Rating from the IA. See a full list of credit ratings at the end of this press release.
KEY CREDIT RATING CONSIDERATIONS
The confirmation of the ratings reflects ANZ’s strong franchise, supported by meaningful market shares in lending and deposits across its core markets of Australia and New Zealand. The credit ratings are underpinned by the Group’s resilient earnings generation, sound asset quality, sound funding and liquidity profile supported by a stable customer deposit base, and its robust capital position.
The Stable trends reflect Morningstar DBRS’ view that the financial impact of the operational risk penalty has been manageable given ANZ’s strong revenue momentum and robust capital position. The effective remediation of nonfinancial risks remains an important credit rating consideration. Accordingly, Morningstar DBRS will continue to closely monitor the Group’s progress in strengthening its risk management framework and risk culture, with particular focus on any adverse effects on the franchise, business growth, or earnings profile.
The Group’s IA of aa (low) is at the midpoint of the IA Range to reflect that ANZ’s credit fundamentals and performance are commensurate with those of similarly rated peers.
CREDIT RATING DRIVERS
Morningstar DBRS would upgrade the credit ratings if the Group strengthened its profitability levels while maintaining robust asset quality and solid capitalisation levels. In addition, ANZ would need to demonstrate a sustained track record of effective nonfinancial risk management and governance.
Morningstar DBRS would downgrade ANZ’s credit ratings if there were a prolonged material deterioration in profitability and asset quality or a material impact to the franchise or capitalisation because of repeated risk management shortcomings. Furthermore, Morningstar DBRS would downgrade the long-term credit ratings if, in its view, the likelihood of timely systemic support declined.
CREDIT RATING RATIONALE
Franchise Combined Building Block Assessment: Very Strong/Strong With total assets of AUD 1,314 billion at the end of March 2026 (end of H1 2026), ANZ is a leading Australian bank with sound market shares in home loans of 13.2% in Australia and 29.8% in New Zealand. Globally, ANZ’s footprint extends to 29 markets, of which 13 are in Asia. The Group is leader in the institutional banking in Australia and New Zealand.
Earnings Combined Building Block Assessment: Good
Morningstar DBRS views ANZ’s earnings generation as sound and resilient, supported by its leading banking franchise, good cost control, and low loan loss provisions. On a statutory basis, the Group reported net profit attributable to shareholders of AUD 3,650 million in H1 2026, broadly stable year over year (YOY) from AUD 3,642 million in H1 2025. This reflected stable net interest income, and lower other operating income offset by lower operating expenses. In H1 2026, profit before credit impairment and income tax increased 2% YOY. ANZ reported a statutory return on average equity of 10.3% in H1 2026 compared with 10.4% in H1 2025, and 9.7% in H1 2024. ANZ is in the process of restructuring; however, its cost-to-income ratio as calculated by Morningstar DBRS decreased to 51% in H1 2026, compared with 52% in H1 2025. On a cash-profit basis (excluding one-off items), the Group’s cash profit was AUD 3,780 million in H1 2026 up 6% YOY from AUD 3,568 million in H1 2025.
Credit impairment charges increased to AUD 274 million in H1 2026, compared with AUD 145 million in H1 2025. The increase was largely driven by higher impairments associated with the Middle East crisis, which triggered a 2.5% increase to severe downside scenario, scenario weights skewed 52.5% to the downside scenarios, and a small increase in overlays to reflect risk associated with the forward looking macro-economic environment. Although the cost of risk (as calculated by Morningstar DBRS) increased to 7 basis points (bps) in H1 2026 from a very low 4 bps in H1 2025, it remains below ANZ’s long-run cost of risk of 11 bps and continues to compare favourably with international peers.
Risk Combined Building Block Assessment: Strong/Good
ANZ has a generally conservative credit risk profile and sound asset quality with low levels of impaired loans despite the higher interest rate environment. However, addressing risk shortcomings remains an important challenge for ANZ, which will remain a key focus for management until the remedial plan is fully implemented and the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is satisfied with the Group’s progress in improving its risk management practices. The Group has sound asset quality with low levels of impaired loans. Stage 3 loans slightly decreased to AUD 7.8 billion at the end of H1 2026, and the Stage 3 loan ratio was 0.98% at the end of H1 2026, compared with 1.00% at YE2025. Stage 2 loans (i.e., loans that are classified as having experienced a significant increase in credit risk but are not impaired) represented 9.4% of gross loans at the end of H1 2026 below 9.8% of total gross loans at the end of H1 2025 but above 8.1% at YE2025.
Funding and Liquidity Combined Building Block Assessment: Strong/Good
ANZ’s funding and liquidity position is sound, largely underpinned by a sound customer deposit base in its home markets of Australia and New Zealand. The Group’s customer deposits (including certificates of deposits) grew 1.7% YOY. ANZ’s wholesale funding is well diversified by investor, maturity, instrument, and currency. At the end of H1 2026, refinancing needs were manageable with around AUD 17 billion in H2 2026 as part of the funding target of AUD 30 billion to AUD 35 billion of wholesale issuance scheduled for F2026. This compares with AUD 16 billion issued in H1 2026.
ANZ’s liquidity position is sound, and the Group’s average high-quality liquid assets were AUD 286.9 billion at the end of H1 2026, broadly unchanged since the end of H1 2025. Total liquid assets were AUD 308.8 billion at the end of H1 2026, up from AUD 306.0 billion at the end of H1 2025, and representing about 24% of total Group’s assets. At the end of H1 2026, the Group’s average liquidity coverage ratio (LCR) was 132%, with the LCR remaining above the regulatory minimum thresholds throughout the period, and its net stable funding ratio was 115%.
Capitalisation Combined Building Block Assessment: Strong
ANZ has a strong capital position underpinned by its strong earnings generation capacity and sound access to capital markets.
ANZ’s APRA CET1 ratio increased to 12.4% at the end of H1 2026 from 12.0% at YE2025, largely reflecting the Group’s earnings generation and comparing well with the APRA minimum requirement of 10.25%. ANZ’s leverage ratio, calculated on an APRA basis as Tier 1 capital as a percentage of total exposure, was 4.5% at the end of H1 2026, slightly up from 4.4% at the end of H1 2025 and amply above the minimum requirement of 3.5%. On an internationally comparable basis, the leverage ratio was 4.9% at H1 2025, while the CET1 ratio was 18.4% at the end of H1 2026, compared with 17.0% at the end of H1 2025.
Further details on the Scorecard Indicators and Building Block Assessments can be found at https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/489949
ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL, AND GOVERNANCE CONSIDERATIONS
Governance (G) Factors
The Corporate Governance subfactor is relevant to ANZ’s credit ratings but does not affect the overall credit ratings or trends assigned to the Group. This is reflected in the Risk grid building block. While ANZ made progress in addressing the governance and operational risk issues identified by APRA and the Royal Commission in 2018 and 2019, more recent developments have raised further concerns. In July 2024, ANZ disclosed regulatory investigations into potential trading and conduct issues, including data reporting failures, misreporting of 2023 bond transactions, and risk management deficiencies in its Sydney dealing room. In August 2024, APRA imposed an additional AUD 250 million operational risk capital add-on for nonfinancial risk management weaknesses, increasing the total capital add-on to AUD 750 million from AUD 500 million. In April 2025, ANZ entered into a court enforceable undertaking with APRA for matters relating to nonfinancial risk management practices and risk culture across the Group, which included an additional operational risk capital overlay of AUD 250 million (equivalent to 5 bps of CET1 capital), raising total add-on to AUD 1 billion. This followed the emergence of issues in ANZ’s Global Markets business. As such, APRA also required an independent review of ANZ’s Global Markets business’ governance and risk framework and the implementation of remediation measures. The capital add-on will remain in place until APRA is satisfied that the identified deficiencies have been adequately addressed.
There were no Environmental or Social factors that had a significant or relevant effect on the credit analysis.
A description of how Morningstar DBRS considers ESG factors within the Morningstar DBRS analytical framework can be found in the Morningstar DBRS Criteria: Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance Factors in Credit Ratings (20 July 2026), https://dbrs.morningstar.com/research/485522
Notes:
All figures are in Australian dollars unless otherwise noted.
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9. Guidance for the retail sector
September 29, 2026
Source: Privacy Commissioner
The best way to do this is usually with a clear privacy statement.
What is fair depends a lot on the circumstances like the individual concerned (age and capacity), the sensitivity of the information, the purpose for collection, or the degree to which the collection intrudes on privacy.
If you are sending personal information to a third-party solely for storage, then you may not need to comply with IPP12. Read our guidance on using third-party providers for information about your privacy obligations.
Under IPP12, you make sure that the personal information you send will be protected by comparable privacy laws in the country the agency is based in.
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/29/guidance-for-the-retail-sector/
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10. Economy strengthening, books getting better
September 29, 2026
Source: New Zealand Government
Today’s pre-election update forecasts healthy economic growth and a distinct improvement in the government’s books, Finance Minister Nicola Willis says.
“I’m pleased that New Zealanders’ hard work, resilience and adaptability through tough economic times is bearing fruit.
“Today’s numbers show that the deficit in the year ending July this year was $3.4 billion smaller than forecast in the Budget in May, reflecting stronger economic momentum.
Treasury’s forecasts also show:
significantly smaller deficits this year and next year
bigger surpluses in the following years
less debt
lower debt servicing costs
the economy growing at an average of 2.6 per cent
220,000 more jobs being created; and
wages rising faster than prices.
“The positive outlook reflects hard work by households and businesses, backed by a government focused on restoring fiscal discipline and driving economic growth.
“The upgraded forecast is driven to a large extent by actual improved performance. Businesses have been doing better than anticipated, which feeds into the government’s bottom line through increased tax revenue.
“Treasury’s Pre-election Economic and Fiscal Update shows the operating balance deficit shrinking from the $11.4 billion forecast at the Budget to $6.8 billion this financial year and to less than $1 billion next year.
“Over the following three years the surplus is forecast to grow from $4 billion to almost $12 billion.
“Debt is forecast to start declining as a proportion of the economy in 2028/29 and to fall in dollar terms in 2030/31. That will be the first such fall since 2017/18.
“The improved forecast means the Government will borrow $15 billion less over the next four years through reduced bond issuance. This is on top of the $6 billion reduction in forecast borrowings at the Budget and means borrowing costs will be lower.
“That is welcome news. The amount New Zealand spends servicing our debt each year is significant, equivalent to the cost of building more than four Dunedin Hospitals every single year.
“Ultimately, this frees up more money for the things New Zealanders care about and ensures we are in a stronger position to weather the next global conflict or major weather event.
“The same applies to households and businesses. Wages rising faster than prices means Kiwis will have more of their own money in the bank and more choices about how to use it, whether that’s taking the kids on holiday, saving for a house deposit, or investing more in their business or KiwiSaver.
“A stronger fiscal position cannot be taken for granted and treated as a green light to open the chequebook, because Kiwis know from bitter experience that things can always change and global instability is not going away.
“There is still a lot of work to do to turn the forecasts into reality and there are clear risks to the forecasts from ongoing instability in the Middle East. That is why we need to stay the course.
“The pre-election forecasts are based on the work done to restore fiscal discipline to government spending and an ongoing commitment by our government to maintaining that discipline.
“The last government’s irresponsible spending, combined with the Reserve Bank’s over-stimulus of the economy, caused unnecessary hardship that many Kiwis are still feeling the effects of.
“The lesson of the past 10 years is that governments must manage the public’s money as carefully as people manage their own finances.
“The pre-election update confirms that is what this government has been doing.
“Our plan to prioritise responsible economic management, underpinned by careful spending and a consistent focus on growing the economy, is working. Now is the time to stick with the plan and secure a stronger financial future for every New Zealander.”
Original source: https://nz.mil-osi.com/2026/09/29/economy-strengthening-books-getting-better/
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