AFCA appoints new advice lead ombudsman

Yasmine Raso

Senior Journalist, Financial Newswire

10 May 2023

The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has confirmed the appointment of Shail Singh as its Lead Ombudsman, Investments and Advice after he took on the role in the interim.

Singh first stepped into the position after his predecessor, Natalie Cameron, accepted the role of Lead Ombudsman for Banking and Finance in January 2022, joining the remaining three Lead Ombudsmen: Suanne Russell (Small Business), Emma Curtis (Insurance) and Heather Gray (Superannuation).

A lawyer by trade, Singh has worked as part of in-house legal counsel and for other regulatory bodies including WorkSafe Victoria and the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria. Singh also undertook training and work as a financial planner before taking on a case management role at the pre-AFCA Financial Ombudsman Scheme in 2010.

He was appointed as an Ombudsman since the inception of AFCA in November 2018 and became Senior Ombudsman, Investments and Advice in 2021.

“Shail brings deep and diverse experience to this role, having worked in dispute resolution for over a decade and having been a financial planner himself,” AFCA’s Deputy Chief Ombudsman, Dr June Smith, said.

“He is a respected specialist in investments and advice complaints, in areas such as financial planning, derivatives, managed funds, timeshare, cryptocurrency and stockbroking.

“Shail has forged strong relationships with key stakeholders, among other things initiating a financial advice liaison group and a cryptocurrency liaison group.”

The appointment comes as AFCA is set to record 100,000 complaints in the 2022/23 financial year, having also achieved $1 billion in compensation for complainants since November 2018.

“I’m extremely excited to be appointed to this role,” Singh said.

“I’m looking forward to continuing my work with firms to prevent disputes, and to being involved in improving our systems and processes to deliver an even better dispute resolution service that is transparent, timely, efficient and above all fair.”