NO.057

APPOINTMENT OF MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN PRUDENTIAL REGULATION AUTHORITY

I am pleased to announce that the Administrator in Council has appointed

Dr John Laker as a member and Chairman and Mr (Kerry) Ross Jones as a

member and Deputy Chairman of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority

(APRA) for five-year terms commencing 1 July 2003.

The Government will also recommend to the Administrator at the next Federal

Executive Council meeting on 30 June 2003 that he appoint Mr Stephen

Somogyi as a member of APRA for a three-year term, also commencing 1 July

2003.

These appointments arise from the Australian Prudential Regulation

Authority Amendment Act 2003. They are all full-time appointments.

Dr Laker, Mr Jones and Mr Somogyi bring considerable skill

and relevant experience to these important positions. I am confident

that each will make an extremely valuable contribution in his new role.

Dr Laker is currently Assistant Governor (Financial System) of the

Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the Deputy Chair of the Payments System

Board of the RBA, a board member of the Australian Prudential Regulation

Authority and an RBA representative on the Council of Financial Regulators.

He has held various positions in the RBA over the past twenty years and

before that worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Treasury.

Mr Jones is currently a Commissioner at the Australian Competition

and Consumer Commission and an Associate Professor at the University

of Technology, Sydney (UTS). He has acted as a consultant to competition

authorities in the United Kingdom, Canada and Argentina and has lectured

on economics at the UTS for more than ten years.

Mr Somogyi is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the CPI Group

Limited, a Commissioner of the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation

Commission, Chairman of the Monash Institute of Health Services Research,

Director of Collins Associates Limited, Councillor of the Institute of

Actuaries of Australia, Director of the National Paper Council of Australia

and Director of Bridgewater Lakes Estate Limited. He has extensive experience

in the insurance industry both within Australia and overseas.

These are the first appointments made under the enhanced governance structure

that the Government has introduced in response to recommendations made

by the HIH Royal Commissioner, Justice Neville Owen. Under this structure,

the three person full-time executive group replaces the APRA board. This

executive group will be responsible and accountable for the operation

and performance of APRA and thereby further strengthen Australia’s existing

prudential regulatory framework.

As the new governance arrangements involve the replacement of the APRA

board, I wish to acknowledge publicly the substantial contribution that

has been made by the members of that board and to thank them for that

contribution.

APRA was formed in 1998 following the recommendations of the Financial

System Inquiry, involving the integration of diverse functions and staff

from the RBA, the Insurance and Superannuation Commission and a number

of state financial sector regulators into a new organisation with very

important prudential supervision responsibilities. This was a substantial

and important task. The Government appreciates the important contribution

that retiring Chairman, Dr Jeffrey Carmichael, Chief Executive Officer,

Mr Graeme Thompson, and other members of the board have made to the achievement

of this task and to meeting APRA’s broader responsibilities over the

period in which they have held those responsibilities.

CANBERRA

27 June 2003

Contact: David Alexander 02 6277 7340

Nigel Ray (Treasury) 02 6263 3974