The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) today announces some changes to its internal structure designed to ensure it remains equipped to deal with emerging and future challenges.
The changes will support APRA's updated strategic priorities, as also announced today in the 2024-25 Corporate Plan.
The most significant change will see APRA move to having its five industry supervision groups being managed in two supervision divisions instead of the current three frontline supervision divisions - Banking, Superannuation and Insurance (encompassing general, life and private health insurance).
From 2 September, the two frontline supervision divisions will be:
- a General Insurance and Banking division; and
- a Life Insurance, Private Health Insurance and Superannuation division.
In addition, APRA will bring together its existing financial and non-financial risk teams in a Cross-industry Risk division, alongside teams focused on systemic risk work. These moves will create a centre of excellence for risk specialists, improving knowledge transfer and cross-skilling opportunities, and ensuring APRA takes a cross-industry and system-wide view of risks.
APRA's three other divisions - Policy & Advice; Technology & Data, and Chief of Staff & Enterprise Services - remain broadly unchanged.
This consolidation streamlines the executive team however the frontline supervisory teams focused on each industry and engaging with regulated entities remain unchanged. APRA's Board Members also remain unchanged.
The Executive Directors confirmed to lead APRA's divisions include:
Jane Magill, Executive Director: General Insurance and Banking
Carmen Beverley-Smith, Executive Director: Life Insurance, Private Health Insurance and Superannuation
Chris Gower, Executive Director: Cross-industry Risk
Sean Carmody, Executive Director: Policy and Advice
Bruce Young, Executive Director: Technology and Data
Clare Gibney, Executive Director: Chief of Staff and Enterprise Services
APRA Chair John Lonsdale said the changes would streamline and simplify APRA's decision-making processes at a time of heightened financial risk globally.
"Over recent years, APRA's size and responsibilities have increased as the financial system has grown in scale and complexity. The interconnected nature of our digital environment means shocks travel across countries and industries much faster, and we need to ensure APRA is set up to react swiftly and effectively to key issues and crises.
"The changes we are announcing today respond to this evolution by consolidating related areas of expertise - particularly for our risk teams - which enables greater knowledge transfer and capability development.
"APRA will continue to evolve as a modern and future-focused regulator that retains its best-practice standing amongst global peers and continues to deliver on its core mandate of ensuring the safety and stability of Australian financial system," Mr Lonsdale said.
The updated APRA organisational chart is available at: APRA's organisation structure.
