Below the Fold is the monthly newsletter from Cognito, an independent PR and communications agency specialising in financial services and technology, with a team based in Sydney.

This post is part of our newsletter archive series, sharing insights and observations from our monthly Below the Fold editions. This one is from September 2025 — some of the market specifics have moved on, but the thinking behind them hasn’t.

Another month, another crisis. The news cycle has kept us all on our toes and reminded us how fast public sentiment can shift.

If you work in comms, that’s job security.

Multiple corporate crises made Australian headlines this month; of significance was telco Optus’s outage, which even drew out a response from Singapore’s PM, Lawrence Wong, who was drawn into the issue by ABC’s Laura Tingle on account of Temasek’s investment in Optus’ parent, Singtel.

Unable to escape further scrutiny, Optus’s name was also dredged up (among others) as one of the large corporations in Australia that paid zero tax in the last fiscal year. Ouch.

Overseas, the furore around the UK’s digital ID has certainly been of interest from a communications perspective, which I’ll dive into in more depth later.

As always, please let me know if you have any thoughts, observations, feedback, or if there was anything you saw in the media worthy of further dissection. Happy to oblige.

Until next time,

Jonathan Buxeda, Director, Cognito ANZ

Narratives Down Under

As observed by Scott Schuberg, Managing Director, Cognito ANZ

The power of narratives (with a little help from economic data) heaped cold water on expectations of further RBA cash rate cuts in Australia throughout September, which is a paradigm shift from earlier in the year when everyone thought that the cutting cycle had legs well beyond the current 3.6%. We should remember that prior to the GFC, Australians rarely saw rates sub-5%. There’s no GFC, there’s no COVID, equities are at all-time highs, the housing market is flying, real household incomes are rising, and low risk-free rates are forcing retirees into volatile asset classes — perhaps the market has run out of reasons to beg for more cuts. On that note, the 30 September RBA minutes are worth a read, alongside Cecile Lefort’s speedy response in the AFR that followed.

Corporate governance was in the spotlight in September. Australian Securities & Investments Commission (ASIC) Chair Joe Longo will step down next year, and I sense — like Jon Bon Jovi — he’s keen to go down in a blaze of glory. He took to LinkedIn to proudly announce the $240m fine ASIC levied to ANZ (or more precisely, to ANZ’s shareholders) and seemed to very warmly welcome Cboe’s expanded listing remit in Australia, partly, I’m sure, to drive the boot into the Australian Securities Exchange as ASIC carries out its inquiry into the Exchange’s governance, capability and risk management frameworks.

Conclusion? There seems to be a sense that systemic strength in listed and private equity assets may prove a great distraction for patches of shoddy corporate governance, and Australian regulators and reporters are getting ahead of the game before the tide turns. If sunlight is the best disinfectant, then the Fourth Estate may prove useful for government and macroprudential regulators in teasing out issues that might otherwise be hidden among herds of bullish investments globally.

Client Spotlight

Turning complex data-driven topics into compelling media stories is central to what Cognito ANZ does for its financial services and technology clients in Australia — and this month was a strong example of that.

If you live in Brisbane, you’ve probably seen the headlines. The Brisbane City Council recently updated its flood maps, showing that more than 17,000 homes are now affected, and unsurprisingly, insurance premiums have also surged in some suburbs.

We put on our storytelling hats and worked with our client Finity, Australia’s largest actuarial and strategic analytics firm, to turn this complex topic into a story that people could relate to.

By letting data speak for itself, Finity’s analysis revealed how premiums have changed over the past five years. Through an interview with Stephen Lau, Principal at Finity, the story also further explores how climate change is shaping risk and affordability in the insurance sector.

Check out the story in The Courier Mail here.

A big thank you to Brendan O’Malley for collaborating with us on this one!

Kudos and Catastrophes

Digital ID has been a topic on the back burner in Australia for a while, as voters have been concerned with bigger issues like the cost of living. In Singapore, meanwhile, Digital ID has been in place for several years already, where citizens generally hold a lot of trust and respect for their government.

The topic hit headlines in the UK with a bang in September.

I’m going to approach this topic purely from a communications standpoint, given that’s where my expertise lies.

To put it gently, it seems like the UK Government should have seen this coming.

Timing is everything. Especially when communicating news that has the potential to delight your opponents and enrage your detractors.

Reading the room a little, it should have been obvious that now is not the right time for this, given the turbulent political environment in the UK and globally.

It’s a real shame, too, because at its core, Digital ID carries a lot of benefits for consumers and businesses, but not when it’s being pitched as a tool to get tough on immigration.

We’ve been involved in developing Digital ID and data control stories in Australia and never encountered pushback from audiences or media. Then again, it was never promoted as a silver bullet to stop those seeking to work illegally.

In general, I would say that the core benefits of eliminating physical identification should broadly resonate with the majority, but if promoted in a way to placate a loud, outraged minority that can’t stand you anyway, then the grab bag of Orwellian conspiracies proves too tempting for opposition voices.

Unfortunately, I think this is what has happened in the UK.

Coffee With a Journalist

Building strong journalist relationships is central to how Cognito ANZ approaches financial services and technology PR in Australia. This month, our team attended a meet-and-greet session at the Bloomberg Sydney offices.

Nothing beats being directly on the ground when it comes to understanding how best to engage with local media, and it was a great opportunity for the team to deepen existing relationships and make some new ones.

Ultimately, our goal when meeting journalists is to understand how we can make their jobs easier — what topics will excite them, which of our clients do they especially find valuable for their specific beat, and what kind of stories are they having trouble sourcing spokespeople for.

All things that would be nearly impossible to uncover without spending some valuable 1-1 or group time with them.

On that note, over coffee, we sat down with Momentum Media’s Managing Editor of Professional Services, Jerome Doraisamy.

We chatted about everything from what makes a great story, to trends shaping the industry and what readers of Momentum Media are really interested in.

A former lawyer, Jerome now wears many hats, overseeing some of Momentum Media’s biggest titles, including Lawyers Weekly, HR Leader, Accountants Daily and Accounting Times.

A man of many talents (and one of the kindest people you’ll meet), Jerome has been part of the Momentum Media family for many years. He’s recently stepped into the Managing Editor role — a huge congratulations from us on a very well-deserved promotion!

Cognito is an independent communications and PR agency specialising in financial services and technology, with offices in Sydney, London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong and other major financial centres around the world. If you’d like to work with a team that understands your sector, get in touch at [email protected].