External panels

The ASIC Consultative Panel was established in 2020, replacing the former External Advisory Panel.

The Panel enables ASIC to consult on proposed regulatory changes; provides intelligence on the external environment – including market conditions, and provides input into ASIC’s strategic planning. Panel members are senior representatives from the academic, consumer, industry, legal and regulatory sectors and are appointed in their personal capacity.

The current members are:

• Alistair Muir (Managing Director, Vanteum and Director: Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, Helia)
• Anne Anderson (Board Investment Committee Member, REST; Independent Director, BT and Immutep Limited)
• Catherine Walter AM (Non-Executive Director: AFIC, Export Finance Australia, and Barristers Chambers Limited)
• Catherine Wolthuizen (Ombudsman and Chief Executive, Energy and Water Ombudsman Victoria. Formerly of Financial Ombudsman Service UK and Australia)
• Debby Blakey (CEO, Hesta)
• Dimity Kingsford Smith (Professor, Faculty of Law, UNSW)
• Emma Herd (Partner, Climate Change and Sustainability Services, EY Australia)
• Fiona Guthrie AM (CEO, Financial Counselling Australia)
• Geoff Warren (Associate Professor [applied investment research], ANU)
• Ian Ramsay AO (Redmond Barry Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Melbourne Law School)
• John Laker AO (Chair, ING and Former Chair, APRA)
• Karyn Sobels (Former Director: Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry)
• Maria Milosavljevic (Chief Information Security Officer, ANZ)
• Michael Dwyer AM (Chair, TCorp - NSW Government)
• Nicholas Davis (Industry Professor [Emerging Technology] and Co-director, Human Technology Institute, UTS)
• Peter Warne (Chair: IPH Limited, Argo Global Infrastructure Limited, Argo Investments Limited and Non-Executive Director: UniSuper, Virgin Airlines Australia Pty Limited and Allens)
• Pippa Downes (Investment Committee, AustralianSuper)
• Raphael Arndt (CEO, Future Fund)
• Robynne Quiggin (Associate Dean [Indigenous Leadership and Engagement], UTS)
• Ross Buckley (Scientia Professor [Private and Commercial Law] UNSW and Member RBA Payment Systems Board)
• Stephanie Tonkin (CEO, Consumer Action Law Centre)
• Susan Thorp (Professor of Finance, University of Sydney)
• Xavier O'Halloran (CEO and Founding Director, Super Consumers Australia)

ASIC’s Consumer Consultative Panel (ACCP), formerly the Consumer Advisory Panel (CAP) was established in November 1998 after ASIC assumed regulatory responsibility for consumer protection in financial services.

The ACCP is one of a number of ASIC consultative panels that support and enhance the work of ASIC.

The ACCP:

• tells us about current and emerging consumer issues they see in the sectors we regulate;
• provides feedback on proposed regulatory changes; and
• informs—through an evidence base of practical consumer and investor experience—the development and delivery of ASIC's strategic and operational objectives.

The ACCP has an external Chair who is independent of ASIC. The current Chair is Gordon Renouf.

Panel members are appointed by ASIC based on relevant expertise and experience. Current Panel members include:

• Tom Abourizk, CHOICE
• Tania Clarke, Consumer Action Law Centre (CALC)
• Roberta Grealish, Consumer Credit Legal Service WA (CCLSWA)
• Chandni Gupta, Consumers’ Federation of Australia (CFA)
• Dr Domenique Meyrick, Financial Counselling Australia (FCA)
• Karen Cox, Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC)
• Jillian Williams, Indigenous Consumer Assistance Network (ICAN)
• Dana Beiglari, Legal Aid NSW (LAN)
• Bettina Cooper, Mob Strong Debt Help, Financial Rights Legal Centre (FRLC)
• Rachna Bowman, South East Community Links (SECL)
• Katrina Ellis, Super Consumers Australia (SCA)

The panel meets at least 3 times a year including a joint meeting with the ACCC’s equivalent consumer panel, the Consumer Consultative Committee.

Read more about the work of ASIC Panels in ASIC’s Annual Reports.

The ASIC Indigenous Advisory Group helps inform ASIC on how to understand and address priorities of First Nations consumers and communities in the financial system.

More about the ASIC Indigenous Advisory Group

The ASIC Business Advisory Panel formally met for the last time in December 2020. This is due to ASIC's statutory registry functions and powers being transitioned to the Commissioner of Taxation in a Machinery of Government (MoG) administrative change, which took place on 15 April 2020.

More about the Machinery of Government (MoG)

The Corporate Governance Consultative Panel was established in 2020, replacing the former Directors’ Advisory Panel.

The Panel enables ASIC to gain a deeper understanding of developments and emerging issues in corporate governance practices. Members of the Panel include listed company directors, industry associations representatives, institutional investors and academics.

The current members are:

• Joe Longo, Chair, ASIC
• Sarah Court, Deputy Chair, ASIC
• Simone Constant, Commissioner, ASIC
• Michael Dorman, Acting Senior Executive Leader, Companies, Registered Liquidators and Small Business, ASIC
• Alan Kirkland, Commissioner, ASIC
• Kate O’Rourke, Commissioner, ASIC
• Helen Bird, Swinburne University
• Ben Carr, Business Council of Australia
• Louise Davidson AM, Australian Council of Superannuation Investors
• Naomi Edwards, Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Andrea Hall, listed company director
• Ming Long AM, listed company director
• Michael Malone, listed company director
• Catherine Maxwell, Governance Institute of Australia
• Rebecca McGrath, listed company director
• Helen Silver, listed company director
• Kirsten Simpson, Future Fund
• David Thodey, listed company director
• Rachel Waterhouse, Australian Shareholders Association

Observers include:

• Christian Gergis, Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Kate Griffiths, Australian Council of Superannuation Investors.

The Cyber Consultative Panel is an independent group of senior members from the financial services industry that advises ASIC on our supervisory approach for the cyber resilience of financial services and markets. The Panel shares emerging threats and other market developments for regulatory consideration.

Panel members have relevant experience across a variety of disciplines pertaining to cybersecurity and cyber resilience in financial services and markets. Panel members include:

• Calissa Aldridge, Executive Director - Markets, ASIC
• Benjamin Cohn-Urbach, Senior Executive Leader - Market Infrastructure, ASIC
• Mike Backeberg, Australian Super
• Christian Gergis, Australian Institute of Company Directors
• Hamish Hansford, Department of Home Affairs
• Phil Anderson, Financial Planning Association of Australia
• Heath Rolls, Reserve Bank of Australia
• Elizabeth Skirving, Council of Small Business Organisations Australia
• Alison Bliss, Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority
• Alex Anastasopoulos, Citi
• Maria Milosavljevic, Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ)
• Tara Cahill, Bupa

The role of the Panel is to provide ASIC strategic advice from an industry perspective on:

• best practices in cyber and operational resilience and related fields
• emerging cyber and operational resilience trends, risks and issues, including emergent disruptive technologies or approaches
• any significant obstacles and barriers for the delivery of ASIC’s cyber and operational resilience strategy.

The Digital Finance Advisory Panel helps inform ASIC on how to focus its efforts in the fintech area.

More about the Digital Finance Advisory Panel

The FICC Markets Consultative Panel advises ASIC on its approach to its responsibilities for supervision and surveillance of Australian fixed income, currencies and commodities markets, and on broader market developments.

The Panel comprises senior members from the financial services industry who bring extensive experience and a range of perspectives across FICC markets. Panel members include:

• Simone Constant, Commissioner, ASIC
• Calissa Aldridge, Executive Director, ASIC Markets
• Andrew Templer, Senior Executive Leader, ASIC Market Conduct
• Benjamin Cohn-Urbach, Senior Executive Leader, ASIC Market Infrastructure
• Andrew Fisher, Australian Retirement Trust
• Anthony Robson, formerly Yieldbroker
• Chris McLachlan, CBA
• Duncan Haig, Barrenjoey
• Jean Bauler, Vanguard
• John Bennett, NAB.
• Matthew Wheadon, AOFM
• Max Bulloch, Westpac
• Paul Banks, Future Fund
• Rob Kenna, TCorp
• Tony Togher, First Sentier Investors
• William Mair, UBS

The Panel provides advice on:

• FICC market supervision, including participant supervision and promotion of market integrity and efficiency
• FICC-related regulatory proposals being considered by ASIC
• developments and emerging issues in FICC markets, such as innovation by participants and trading platform providers.

The Financial Advisers Consultative Panel (FACP) supplements ASIC's existing engagement with the financial advice industry by:

• contributing to our understanding of issues in the financial advice industry
• improving ASIC's capacity to identify, assess and respond to emerging trends in the financial advice industry
• enhancing our relationships with our key stakeholders.

The members of the FACP are practising financial advisers with a range of skills across the following areas:

• insurance
• superannuation
• self-managed superannuation funds
• digital financial advice.

The FACP will provide ASIC with views on a broad range of issues relating to the financial advice industry.

FACP Members

• Andrew Albury
• Marisa Broome
• Alison Henderson
• Brendan Hughes
• Delma Newton
• Sam Perera
• Liam Shorte
• Karen Walmsley
• Chris Webster
• Liz Westover

FACP Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference - Financial Advisers Consultative Panel (PDF 139 KB)

The Markets Consultative Panel is an independent group of senior members from the financial services industry that advises ASIC on its approach to its responsibilities for day-to-day supervision of the Australian market and on broader market developments.

Panel members have experience in the legal, compliance, retail, institutional and market making aspects of the industry. Panel members include:

• Simone Constant, Commissioner, ASIC
• Carole Comerton-Forde, University of Melbourne
• Damian Graham, Aware Super
• Jacqueline Virtue, Washington H. Soul Pattinson
• James Fowle, CommSec
• Jarrod Key, Barrenjoey
• Keith Birch, Goldman Sachs
• Kristen Edmond, Macquarie Group
• Robert Risk, Susquehanna
• Scott Webster, FNZ Securities
• Trent Hayes, AustralianSuper
• Calissa Aldridge, Executive Director, ASIC Markets
• Amanda Zeller, Senior Executive Leader, ASIC Market Integrity
• Andrew Templer, Senior Executive Leader, ASIC Market Conduct
• Benjamin Cohn-Urbach, Senior Executive Leader, ASIC Market Infrastructure

The panel provides advice on:

• market structure initiatives, including ASIC’s proposals on market-related deregulatory initiatives and efficiencies
• market supervision, including market surveillance and participant supervision, and
• emerging market issues, such as innovation by market operators and participants.

In December 2023, the government announced that responsibility for some of Australia’s key business registers, including the companies register and leadership of business registries work more generally, will return from the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to ASIC.

As a part of preparing for this change, ASIC has established an external advisory body, the Registry Business Advisory Group (RBAG). The RBAG provides direct consultation and engagement with users of ASIC registry services to help provide strategic insight and guide the development of future proposals to stabilise and uplift the ASIC registers.

The return of the registry business to ASIC from the ATO, together with the stabilisation and uplift of the ASIC registers, is a strategic and challenging undertaking. The RBAG will be pivotal in drawing on the experience of organisations and individuals who consume registry services, to shape the strategy and deliver robust, high quality registry services.

The ATO will be an important standing member of the group, represented at this forum to enable coverage from an ATO perspective as the agency responsible for the administration of the Director ID and Australian Business Register.

Membership of RBAG includes the following key stakeholder segments:

• Industry bodies relevant to the purpose of Commonwealth business registers,
• End users of business registers services from professional services firms who provide data & interact Commonwealth business registers,
• End users of business registers services from the small business / sole proprietor sector who provide data & interact with Commonwealth business registers,
• End users who are commercial organisations that consume ASIC registry data, and
• Suppliers of commercial ASIC compliance software solutions

The current members are:

• Kate O’Rourke, Commissioner, ASIC (Chair)
• Diana Steicke, Executive Director, Registry & Intelligence, ASIC
• Liesl McKay, Senior Executive Leader, Registry Operations, ASIC
• Paul Franklin, Senior Responsible Officer, Registry Connect Program, ASIC
• Michael McCulloch, Senior Executive Specialist, RegistryConnect Program, ASIC
• Jennifer Dolphin, Senior Executive Leader, Registry Interactions & Services, ASIC
• Karen Foat, Australian Business Registry Services (ABRS)
• Gavan Ord, Chartered Practicing Accountants Australia (CPAA)
• Catherine Maxwell, Governance Institute of Australia Ltd
• Chris Denney, Digital Service Providers Australia New Zealand (DSPANZ)
• Laura Bacon, Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD)
• Viola Pythas, CorpSec Services
• Diana Jones, InfoTrack
• Warren Renden, BGL Corporate Solutions
• Frank Galati, Prime Company Compliance
• John McCarthy, Pitcher Partners
• Kevin McFadden, NowInfinity/CLASS
• Matthew Addison, COSBOA
• Joseph Vartuli, CreditorWatch
• Yan DeHorta, Equifax Australia New Zealand
• Julie Dal Pra, EACH

The inaugural meeting of the RBAG was held on 20 March 2024.

RBAG Terms of Reference

Terms of Reference - Registry Business Advisory Group (PDF 154 KB)