AFCA Announces Appointments of Seven New Senior Ombudsmen

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) today announced seven internal promotions to Senior Ombudsman in a bid to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of dispute resolution.

According to the official press release, these new appointments include:

• Anne Maree Howley, Senior Ombudsman, Superannuation

• Chris Liamos, Senior Ombudsman General Insurance

• Louise McAuliffe, Senior Ombudsman, Credit

• Shail Singh, Senior Ombudsman, Investments and Advice

• Neva Skilton, Senior Ombudsman, Transactions

• Brenda Staggs, Senior Ombudsman, Financial Difficulty

• Andrew Weinmann, Senior Ombudsman, Life Insurance

The new Senior Ombudsmen will work closely with AFCA’s Lead Ombudsmen in the areas of banking and finance, insurance, investments and advice, and superannuation. In addition, the Senior Ombudsmen will be part of the leadership team in AFCA’s Decision Makers group, which totals more than 80 ombudsmen and adjudication panel members. 

“They’ll bring their specialist technical and professional expertise to bear on projects aimed at efficient and consistent decision making, which we know is important to both complainants and financial firms,” Deputy Chief Ombudsman June Smith said. “The Senior Ombudsman will help ensure we deliver an independent, fair and consistent approach to decision making and complaint resolution.”

In July this year, AFCA has appointed three new Ombudsmen, and promoted three others internally​. They are Louise McAuliffe, James Taylor, David Short, Vicki Carter, Mervyn Silverstein and Qasim Gilani.