The efficiency and fairness of financial infrastructure is a function of the technology available to providers, the regulation governing the financial market participants or intermediaries, the availability and dissemination of information, the number and nature of participants in the market and the instruments provided, says a paper from the Australian Centre for Financial Studies. Professor Deborah Ralston and her colleague from the centre, Martin Jenkinson, argue that despite the many benefits of financial integration it also brings "potential for contagion and global systemic risk". They say Australia needs to mitigate these risks through such measures as pushing for a deeper corporate bond market and the level of financial exports to the region. Fitch Ratings has affirmed the long-term issuer default ratings at Arab Bank Australia at BBB-. It says that, while it accounts for just 2.3 per cent of the group's total assets, the Australia franchise is a core subsidiary of its parent, Jordan-based Arab Bank Plc (also BBB-/Negative). In the agency's opinion there is a high likelihood of support from Arab Bank due to the potential reputational risk for the wider group. Fitch said it expects operating profitability to slowly improve from 2015, although cost management is 'an area of weakness' for the bank in Australia. A financial adviser from NSW who pleaded guilty to four charges of fraud following an ASIC investigation could spend time behind bars.  ASIC found Shashi Kanta Prasad created false loan documents for seven clients to secure home loans totalling more than $3.6 million between February 2008 and March 2011. Prasad also pleaded guilty to producing 41 fake documents and instruments and using those statements, documents and instruments with the intention to obtain a financial advantage for her employer in the form of commissions. The results are out for the OECD's Programme for International Student Assessment 2012, which included for the first time a large scale international study to assess the financial literacy of 15-year-olds as they near the end of compulsory education. Australian students scored higher than the OECD average, ranking equal third out of the 18 participating countries and economies, alongside Estonia and New Zealand, and behind Shanghai-China and the Flemish Community of Belgium. While 16 per cent of Australian students performed at the top level, another ten per cent of Australian students fell in the lowest performing group.