NO.035

DEPARTURE OF MS JILLIAN SEGAL AS ASIC DEPUTY CHAIR

On 30 June 2002, Ms Jillian Segal will be resigning from her position as Deputy

Chair of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission to take up a position

as a Member of the Committee of Inquiry into the competition provisions of the

Trade Practices Act 1974, and their administration (the TPA Review).

Ms Segal was appointed to the position of ASIC Commissioner from October 1997

and Deputy Chair of ASIC on 18 November 2000, for a three-year term. During

that time, Ms Segal has been instrumental in the development and implementation

of some of the Government’s ambitious and wide ranging reforms of the financial

services industry.

Following the 1997 Wallis Financial Systems Inquiry ASIC assumed solely responsible

for all market integrity and consumer protection regulation within the financial

system. The final stage of the Wallis reforms culminated in the commencement

of the Financial Services Reform Act which introduced reforms designed to provide

for a single, harmonised licensing regime for financial service providers and

product issuers, as well as a consistent and comparable financial product disclosure

regime, and uniform arrangements for the regulation of our financial markets.

As Deputy Chair of ASIC Ms Segal has made an outstanding contribution to these

reforms both in the policy formulation stage and in establishing a range of

measures designed to ensure that the transition to this new regime is as smooth

as possible for both industry and consumers.

Ms Segal has also played an important role in supporting the ASIC Chairman

in steering the organisation through a particularly challenging time in relation

to key enforcement and investigative projects that have absorbed a good deal

of ASIC’s time and resources in recent years.

On behalf of the Government, I would like to take this opportunity to thank

Ms Segal for her great contribution to the work of ASIC and her tireless efforts

in building and maintaining productive and constructive relationships with both

Government and industry. I am sure that her extensive commercial experience

and work as a regulator with a consumer protection focus will allow her to make

a unique and important contribution to the TPA Review.

CANBERRA

27 June 2002

Contact: Niki Savva

Treasurer’s Office

02 6277 7340