(Reuters) – Westpac Banking Corp said on Thursday it would sell its auto finance loans book to non-bank lender Resimac Group for an expected value of A$1.4 billion ($963.62 million) to A$1.6 billion at completion.

Westpac, Australia’s second-largest mortgage lender by loans, had partially sold its auto finance business to U.S. private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management in 2021, as it moved to focus on core banking operations.

“The transaction supports the strategic growth objectives of Resimac’s asset finance division and follows a number of business and portfolio acquisitions in recent years,” Resimac said in a separate statement.

The deal is expected to complete by the first half of 2025.

($1 = 1.4529 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Himanshi Akhand in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

• Finance creator Vivian Tu’s podcast has a new home at Vox Media and wellness brand PS.
• Tu aims to make finance less complex and empower diverse audiences about money.
• Vox Media and Tu share why the partnership made sense and what helped seal the deal.

Vivian Tu built a name for herself as “Your Rich BFF” online through her mission to make the finance industry less “male, pale, and stale”, and provide important information about building wealth to her audience. Marginalized communities, in particular, have been the cornerstone of her brand since 2021.

Her knack for breaking down complex financial topics is informed by her prior role as a trader at investment firm J.P. Morgan and has helped her build a very strong, engaged community of almost 7 million social media users across Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and LinkedIn. By 2022, she was making enough money from her social media income streams, like brand partnerships and speaking engagements, that she quit her job at media company BuzzFeed to focus on her brand full-time.

As she grew her social-media business, she discovered her audience wanted more in-depth knowledge about personal finance than the 30-second videos she initially went viral for; thus, the podcast “Networth & Chill” was launched in March 2023. Here, Tu interviewed wealthy, online personalities like real estate mogul Ryan Serhant, fitness creator Cassey Ho, and Bilt Rewards founder Ankur Jain about how they manage their money. She also spent some episodes breaking down topics like the racial pay gap and the psychology behind bad spending decisions.

Now, 30-year-old Tu is partnering with Vox Media and the newly rebranded wellness brand PS, formerly known as PopSugar, to launch a second season of the podcast. The podcast will now include a video format and dive deeper into exactly how financially well-off individuals were able to grow their net worth into the millions.

“This season, I’m asking the hard-hitting questions,” Tu told Business Insider. “I’m asking for dollar amounts because I think that’s so important for people to hear.”

Vox Media was one of many suitors vying for the chance to collaborate with Tu, but they won because of an aligned vision and handing over creative control.

The video podcasting space is particularly popular — and lucrative right now, with prominent creators like Alix Earle and Jake Shane, recently launching their own ventures.

A report from Spotify published in June found that 63% of respondents trust their favorite podcast host more than their other favorite influencer. It’s also lucrative for creators to branch out into audio; the same report found that 48% of Gen Zers and millennials said they’re more likely to be interested in ads and products when they’re promoted by their favorite podcasters. This means creators who choose to host podcasts can tap into a new stream of income by making money from the ads promoted within each episode.

Tu said that moving into video podcasting wasn’t just a “strategic business decision”, it was to save her significant time. While season one of “Networth & Chill” gained over 2 million downloads, Tu spent a lot of her day creating separate social assets to promote the podcast because it was only audio. With video podcasts, she can now quickly use existing visual clips and post them on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to spread the word about new episodes.

“I wanted to work smarter so I didn’t have to duplicate work,” she said.

Vox Media and PS’ new vision to center health and wellness content was a big reason she picked them; that, alongside her familiarity with their work producing podcasts, was what sealed the deal.

“Financial wellness is such a huge component of our rebrand so I think it felt like such a natural home for Vivian because there’s a shared mission to have open and honest conversations around money and have taboo or uncomfortable topics accessible to a much wider audience,” Lillian Xu, Executive Director of Vox Media’s Podcast Business, told BI. “Having a very clear mission statement, like Vivian does, really helps us determine the success of a podcast.”

According to Xu, Vox Media and Tu will work very closely together on the podcast’s sales, marketing, and distribution, such as posting teasers of new episodes across Your Rich BFF and PS’ social media accounts.

“This podcast is going to be about the questions you’ve been too afraid and too nervous to ask anybody in your life,” Tu said. “Even if you can’t have those conversations with your own friends, you can have them with mine.”

California politicians convicted of a crime will no longer be able to use campaign funds to cover legal expenses.

On Sept. 26, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed AB 2803 into law, which closes a campaign finance loophole that former Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu used last year to pay his criminal defense attorney amid an FBI political corruption probe.

According to campaign finance documents, Sidhu made a $300,000 payment to attorney Paul Meyer in 2022 from funds raised for his reelection.

Before that, he resigned as mayor a week after an FBI affidavit accused him of bribery, fraud, obstruction of justice and witness tampering.

Assemblyman Avelino Valencia (D-Anaheim), who had publicly called on Sidhu to step down when he served on Anaheim City Council alongside him, introduced the bill in February.

“What Sidhu did was unacceptable and unethical considering the crimes that he was being charged with,” Valencia said. “I don’t think supporters of candidates intended for their money to go towards defending politicians against criminal charges.”

Sidhu eventually pleaded guilty to four felonies, including charges connected to the attempted sale of Angel Stadium, at the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana last September.

“Yes, I’m guilty,” Sidhu said when he entered his plea. “I did lie to the FBI.”

But the former Anaheim mayor is not the sole politician in the state to have exploited the campaign finance loophole.

Former state Sen. Leland Yee paid his legal team $128,000 from campaign committee funds for his secretary of state bid before pleading guilty to racketeering in 2015.

Sean McMorris, ethics program manager for Common Cause, noted the new law as one that is narrowly tailored but important in strengthening the Political Reform Act that was first enacted 50 years ago.

“There are bad actors,” he said. “If you do want to deter them and make ethics laws more important, one way to do that is not allow them to use campaign funds to pay off legal fees or penalties. This is good in that it’s expanding that for felonies as well as bribery.”

Under the new law, if politicians are convicted of a felony among other select crimes, they will be required to pay back donors for any funds diverted to legal expenses.

The law doesn’t cover legal defense funds, which politicians are legally allowed to open and raise money for without contribution limits.

Former state Sen. Ron Calderon and former state Sen. Roderick Wright raised funds through such committees.

“That’s still a loophole,” McMorris said.

The bill, which was co-sponsored by state Sen. Tom Umberg (D-Santa Ana) and Assemblyman Phil Chen (R-Yorba Linda), marks another anti-corruption effort for Valencia, who chairs an Assembly accountability and oversight subcommittee.

He previously ordered a state audit of contracts between Visit Anaheim and the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce after an independent corruption report alleged the two organizations engaged in a grafting scheme involving $1.5 million in COVID-19 relief funds.

Newsom also last month signed into law AB 2946, a Valencia-backed bill that requires a majority vote by the Orange County Board of Supervisors before discretionary funds can be awarded.

The legislation comes in the wake of a political corruption scandal involving $13 million in public funds directed by Supervisor Andrew Do to Viet Society America, which a county lawsuit now alleges was embezzled by the nonprofit that also employed Do’s daughter.

In closing the loophole exploited by Sidhu, Valencia hopes to protect the intent behind campaign contributions.

“It’s another step in ensuring good government, transparency and ethics in public service,” he said of the new law. “It doesn’t solve some of the gaps still kept in the system, but it’s a step closer for sure.”