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ASIA IN BRIEF The Down Under outpost of consultancy EY has fired two staff after they allegedly accessed details about bank accounts held by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.Local media report that the pair were employees of the artist formerly known as Ernst and Young, which used them to work on a contract for Australia’s Commonwealth Bank where they allegedly accessed details of the PM’s bank account.The Bank isn’t commenting on the matter, so isn’t saying how a pair of contractors were able to access such sensitive information.
The incident means all four members of the so-called Big Four consultancies are in the doghouse down under. KPMG Australia’s chair recently left the organization after a whistleblower revealed it inappropriately used a client’s confidential data and Deloitte last year repaid consultancy fees after it submitted a report partly created with AI. PWC’s scandal is the worst of the lot as the company was asked to consult on tax policy and then used the knowledge gained during that engagement to advise tech companies on how to pay less tax.
South Korea and Australia brace for the downside of the tech boomSouth Korea last week announced record monthly exports of over $100 billion, thanks largely to inflated memory prices meaning huge sales for Samsung and SK Hynix.News of that record was quickly followed by a warning from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which in its annual Economic Survey [PDF] of South Korea warned “increasing dependence on semiconductor exports boosts growth and tax revenues but may also increase exposure to external shocks and cyclical volatility.”
