The Regulators 2023

Dr Brad Jones is Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the Reserve Bank of Australia. In this role, he is responsible for the Bank's work on financial stability, including production of the twice-yearly Financial Stability Review, as well as the Bank's oversight of the payments system.

Dr Jones joined the RBA in 2018, first serving as the Head of International Department before taking over as the Head of Economic Analysis Department in 2020.

Before joining the Bank, Brad served for five years at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC. There he was a senior advisor in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department, working on a variety of issues related to central banking and the international financial system. Prior to that, he held senior macroeconomic research and global macro trading responsibilities for just under a decade at Deutsche Bank in London and Hong Kong.

Brad graduated with a PhD in finance, first class honours in economics and served for five years as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School. He has published extensively on a range of topics related to financial stability, monetary policy and international financial markets. He is a Graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a signatory to The Banking and Finance Oath.

Peter Soros commenced as the Acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AUSTRAC on 17 June 2023.

As Acting AUSTRAC CEO, Peter leads Australia's financial intelligence unit and anti‐money laundering and counter‐terrorism financing (AML/CTF) regulator.

AUSTRAC’s regulation hardens the financial sector against criminal exploitation and its intelligence provides crucial information to its national security, domestic and international law enforcement partners.

Peter has an extensive and diverse career, including experience in a range of Government roles, including with the Department of Industry and the Department of Human Services. Peter commenced at AUSTRAC in June 2018, as the Deputy CEO of AUSTRAC’s Regulatory Division. In this time, Peter has had responsibility for AUSTRAC’s supervisory, education, policy, enforcement and communication functions. Peter brings to AUSTRAC a strong understanding of law enforcement, intelligence and national security.

Peter is AUSTRAC’s representative on the ACIC Board, the Serious Financial Crime Taskforce CEO Board and the Criminal Justice and Law Enforcement Forum. In view of AUSTRAC’s role as a member of the National Intelligence Community, Peter also undertakes agency head-level engagement with the Office of National Intelligence and other NIC members.

Peter was appointed Acting AUSTRAC CEO by the Attorney-General following Ms Nicole Rose’s appointment to the National Anti-Corruption Commission. The process to appoint a permanent AUSTRAC CEO is overseen by the Commonwealth Attorney-General’s Department.

John Lonsdale was appointed as Chair of APRA on 31 October 2022 after originally joining as Deputy Chair on 8 October 2018.

In his Deputy Chair role, John was responsible for oversight of Australia’s banking sector. His responsibilities also included oversight of APRA’s work on culture and remuneration, building APRA’s crisis resolution capability and strengthening APRA’s collaboration with peer regulators.

John worked for Australian Treasury for over 30 years prior to joining APRA. He was a member of Treasury’s Executive and, in his role as Deputy Secretary, Markets Group, he had responsibility for financial system, consumer and foreign investment policy. In 2014 he led the Secretariat to the Financial System Inquiry based in Sydney. John also worked across key areas in the Treasury including budget policy, tax policy, retirement incomes and the financial system. John is APRA’s representative on the Payments System Board, the Council of Financial Regulators, the Trans-Tasman Council on Banking Supervision and the Financial Stability Board’s Standing Committee on Supervisory and Regulatory Cooperation.

Mark leads ASIC’s Strategic Planning and Intelligence team, within the Intelligence and International group.

He is ASIC’s Regional Commissioner for New South Wales and also leads ASIC’s Strategic Planning and Intelligence (SP&I) including ASIC’s Innovation Hub and Regulatory Efficiency functions. SP&I leads ASIC strategic prioritisation work. The Innovation Hub provides practical support to start-ups and scale-ups as they navigate Australia’s financial regulatory framework. ASIC’s Regulatory Efficiency work seeks to identify unnecessary frictions and minimise the costs of regulatory requirements.

Mark has held a range of senior executive positions at ASIC, including lead of Strategic Intelligence, lead of ASIC's competition in equity markets project and the Exchange Market Operators, Regulatory Policy and International teams. Between 2012 to 2014, he undertook secondments at the Ontario Securities Commission as Principal Adviser, Financial System Inquiry Secretariat and as Director of Strategy, Research and Risk. Prior to joining ASIC, Mark worked in the corporate and superannuation areas of a national law firm.

Ms Yates joined Australian Unity in August 2020. She is CEO of the Australian Unity Retail platform, which brings together Australian Unity’s private health insurance, banking, and general insurance businesses. Ms Yates is a Director of Australian Unity Bank Limited, Australian Unity Health Limited and Australian Unity Strategic Holdings Pty Ltd.

Prior to joining Australian Unity Ms Yates had an extensive career as a banking executive with over 25 years’ experience across investment and institutional banking, private banking, wealth management and insurance. Ms Yates began her career at Deloitte as a Chartered Accountant before moving to the banking industry. Prior to joining Australian Unity she was the Chief Customer Office for Private, Wealth and Insurance at BNZ, a subsidiary of the NAB Group.