The Government has released the Australian Financial Centre Forum’s report on Australia as a Financial Centre .

The Report concludes that exports and imports of financial services are low by international standards and that there are some policy settings which inhibit a greater volume of cross-border financial transactions occurring through Australia.

The recommendations in the Report include:

• Remove withholding tax on interest paid on foreign-raised funding by Australian banks, including offshore deposits and deposits in Australia by non-residents;
• Remove withholding tax on interest paid to foreign banks by their Australian branches;
• Remove withholding tax on financial institutions’ related party borrowing;
• Remove all state taxes and levies on the insurance sector ;
• Standardise state regulations relating to the insurance sector.