Australia bank watchdog faces funding challenge as it becomes powerful

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's banking watchdog faces funding challenges to improve oversight on entities it regulates, its chairman said on Wednesday, after a government report recommended that the regulator be more forceful and less discreet.

Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) Chairman Wayne Byres told reporters on a conference call it will need to work with the government to decide how to progress on recommendations from the review published late on Tuesday.

Byres could not provide the exact sum needed but said it "was not a trivial amount."

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Jacqueline Wong)