The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has appointed Shail Singh as its new lead ombudsman for investments and advice after a competitive selection process.
A lawyer by profession, Singh worked as an in-house legal counsel and for regulators, including WorkSafe Victoria and the Medical Practitioners Board of Victoria. He then trained and worked as a financial planner before becoming a case manager with an AFCA predecessor, the Financial Ombudsman Scheme, in 2010. Afterwards, he became an ombudsman when AFCA launched in November 2018 and then took on the role of senior ombudsman for investments and advice in 2021.
Singh took on the role of acting lead ombudsman in January 2022 when his predecessor, Natalie Cameron, became the lead ombudsman for banking and finance.
AFCA Deputy Chief Ombudsman Dr. June Smith has welcomed Singh to his new leadership role.
“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,” Dr. 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.”
Singh said: “I'm extremely excited to be appointed to this role. I'm looking forward to continuing my work with firms to prevent disputes and 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.”
AFCA has five lead ombudsmen. They are responsible for AFCA's approach to decision making in their respective areas and lead more than 100 ombudsmen and adjudication panel members.
The five lead ombudsmen are responsible for AFCA’s approach to decision making in their respective areas. Together they head teams totalling more than 100 ombudsmen and adjudication panel members. The latest appointment follows the entrance of Gerard Brody to AFCA's independent board.
