Financial Complaints Authority appoints Senior Ombudsmen

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.

“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,” 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.” 

Projects include developing new and revised AFCA Approaches in consultation with stakeholders.

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.

While the vast majority of the 70,000-plus complaints escalated to AFCA annually are resolved by helping complainants and financial firms reach agreement, around 5,000 cases need the more formal input of a decision-maker such as an ombudsman or adjudicator.

The new appointments for the positions of senior ombudsmen are:  

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