AFCA Announces Appointments of Six New Ombudsmen

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA), a non-government ombudsman service providing free, fair and independent help with financial disputes, announced on Wednesday it has appointed three new Ombudsmen, and promoted three others internally.

David Short will join AFCA as Ombudsman in its Sydney office at the end of August, James Taylor in September. Both of them are in the Banking and Finance team. And Louise McAuliffe in the Melbourne office in the Insurance team, effective from September.

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McAuliffe has extensive experience as a banking and finance lawyer and has held senior roles in corporate and private practice, including at partner level. She is currently Head of Legal, Dispute Resolution Group at ANZ. She has been in the ANZ legal team for the past 14 years, progressing to her current role in 2015.

James now serves as Practice Leader, Business Lending Legal, at Westpac. Prior to this, he was Head Counsel, Country Banking Legal, at Rabobank. And David currently works as Head of Legal, Risk and Compliance at BizCover.

Additionally, Vicki Carter, Mervyn Silverstein and Qasim Gilani have been promoted to Ombudsmen.

“It’s terrific that we have been able to secure such skilled and experienced people,” said June Smith, Deputy Chief Ombudsman of AFCA. “Our internal promotions are also testament to the strength of talent already here at AFCA.”  

Earlier in May, Fazzaco reported that AFCA has appointed​ Emma Curtis as Lead Ombudsman Insurance, Suanne Russell as Lead Ombudsman Small Business, which take effect in early August.