NSW Financial Crimes Squad detectives said they have laid an additional 50 charges against a 34 year-old man, alleging identity theft and large-scale fraud in a case dating back to January 2017. The man, whose identity has been shielded , was charged in May last year by investigators from Task Force Steinwedel II over the identity theft of numerous bank clients, resulting in the fraudulent acquisition of more than A$500,000. The latest series of 49 charges means more than 100 charges have been laid. Police will allege in court the man attempted to gain access to more than 400 individual accounts by contacting the - as yet unnamed - financial institution on "numerous occasions". Moody's Investors Service says the credit quality of mortgages in the cover pools of Australian covered bonds is improving thanks to APRA's measures to curb the origination of riskier mortgages.  "The share of riskier interest-only, housing investment and high loan-to-value ratio mortgages has declined in most cover pools over the past two years," said Joanne Kung, a Moody's associate analyst. On a weighted average basis, interest-only loans currently account for 23.9 per cent of the loans in the cover pools of Australia's four major banks and 32.5 per cent of the total portfolio of home loans on the balance sheets of these banks.  Fitch Ratings has affirmed the ratings of New Zealand's four major Australian-owned banks: ANZ New Zealand (AA-/Stable);  ASB, wholly owned by Commonwealth Bank of Australia (AA-/Negative);  (BNZ) wholly owned by NAB (AA-/Stable); and  Westpac New Zealand (AA-/Stable). The outlook on ASB's long-term issuer default rating (IDR) is negative and that for the remaining banks is stable. Both ANZ and ASB in New Zealand say they have seen a spike in disputed payments and claimed fraudulent transactions, with ANZ hiring an extra ten staff for its dispute team to make sure it meets its 21-day dispute resolution promise to customers. ASB has also reported an unprecedented increase in dispute inquiries, reports The NZ Herald. It said the increase was driven by the rise in online transactions and, as well as fraud, the bank was seeing more customers disputing charges for online games, subscriptions they were not aware of or charges when a free subscription period expired. However, other NZ banks reported they had not seen similar spikes in disputed payments. New Zealand's Commerce and Consumer Affairs minister has released the issues paper guiding the review of the country's Insurance Contract Law. Kris Faafoi said recent reforms in Australia and the UK had left New Zealand lagging behind. He said reforms to the disclosure requirements and claims process were needed.