APRA appoints 4 to executive team

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has appointed Carmen Beverley-Smith and Clare Gibney (former general manager resolutions at APRA) to the roles of executive director (ED) superannuation and ED policy and advice, respectively.

In addition, APRA has created two new ED-level roles after APRA members reviewed the organisational structure in order to enhance the delivery of its corporate plan.

The new roles are ED technology, which will be filled by Bruce Young (former general manager operational resilience at APRA) and chief of staff, which will go to Jane Magill.

The changes and new roles will mainly focus on bolstering the regulator’s capabilities in technology and data while aligning its communication and stakeholder teams.

The regulator has run a recruitment process over the last three months, considering both internal and external candidates to fill vacancies in the leadership team.

The new appointments and changes to APRA’s structure and responsibilities followed Therese McCarthy Hockey and Suzanne Smith entering roles as APRA members from their positions as EDs.

Ms Beverley-Smith joins APRA following 20 years in financial services and consulting. She previously held leadership roles with Westpac and Commonwealth Bank of Australia, most recently in the role of general manager, risk transformation delivery integration at Westpac.

Ms Magill will commence with her role in May 2023 after a career with Macquarie, where she was global lead — business operational risk, commodities and global markets group, being based in London and New York.

Bringing board risk management and global commercial leadership experience, Ms Magill has operated as both a first and second-line risk manager.

All other appointees’ roles will take effect as of 1 March 2023.

Banks mortgage book over $2tn, APRA data finds

New data from APRA has found that mortgage lending continued to lift in December across owner-occupied and investor lending, despite the Reserve Bank lifting the cash rate by 300 bps since May 2022.

The regulator released its monthly authorised deposit-taking institution (ADI) statistics for December last year, which revealed that total mortgage portfolio hit $2,061 billion, up from $2,050 billion in November 2022.

The data revealed that owner-occupier loans increased 0.58 per cent to $1,385.1 billion (up from $1,377.7 billion) and investor lending rose 0.3 per cent to $676.3 billion, rising from $673.8 billion.

[RELATED: Banks mortgage book hit more than $2tn in December: APRA]