In its Federal Budget, the government followed up on some much-anticipated plans to introduce the unambiguously titled new Banking Executive Accountability Regime, or BEAR. The proposals will apply to all authorised deposit taking institutions, and will have some so-far undefined flow-on effects - such as forcing senior bankers to pay more attention to breach reporting or risk loss of pay, a fine, or both.  Among the direct changes being proposed are;  the registration of senior executives and directors with APRA; the mapping of senior executives' roles and responsibilities;  APRA to receive stronger powers to remove and disqualify senior executives and directors; a new civil penalty regime for misconduct, with maximum penalties of A$200 million for larger ADIs, and $50 million for smaller ADIs; and deferred senior executive remuneration, where at least 40 per cent of the variable remuneration of senior executives' will have to be deferred for at least four years. APRA will receive funding of A$4.2 million over four years to implement the proposals (suggesting a lead time to implementation).The government's proposals have only been communicated in outline at this stage. "Expect to see the details of the BEAR fleshed out in time and a consultation on the proposed changes later this year," wrote the banking partners at major law firm Ashurst in a note to clients. More interestingly, after considering the direct aspects of the proposed BEAR, the Ashurst report goes further: banks will also need to consider other implications the BEAR may have on their business operations and processes, including breach reporting.The BEAR reforms will interact with the work currently being undertaken by the ASIC Enforcement Review Taskforce, which is expected to release its report in September 2017 examining the breach reporting regime and the adequacy of ASIC's regulatory tools and powers.  Breach reporting is therefore firmly back on the radar: "given the significant increase in penalties, and the likely scope of the new misconduct rules, banks will need to review their breach investigation and reporting processes to ensure they take into account the BEAR, including the role of senior executives in this process who may be impacted by the reports," said Ashurst.