Rowell will step down from her role at the end of June after over 21 years as a prudential regulator.
In her final speech, Rowell reflected on key changes over her years of service, specifically governance and risk management practices across the Australian financial sector.
“The past two decades have been an extraordinary journey, where I’ve been fortunate to have a front row seat, and sometimes provide a guiding hand, as the financial system has evolved in the face of a variety of technological, health, financial, and geopolitical challenges, each with unique and lasting impacts,” she said.
Rowell said the Australian financial sector has faced several challenges over the years, such as:
“Each of these episodes was different, but look closely, and you will find things in common. Indeed, all can be traced in one way or another to failures in governance, risk culture, remuneration, or accountability, which (because you know we love an acronym at APRA) we term GCRA,” Rowell said.
Rowell said APRA will continue to focus on bottom-line financial metrics because of the significance of capital, liquidity, reserving, and investment returns to protecting depositors and insurance policyholders and the outcomes for superannuation members.
“In that spirit, I’m also moving on, recognising the need for APRA to renew its leadership in the same way we demand of the entities we supervise,” she said. “It has been a privilege to play a role in influencing practices and outcomes across the financial sector over the last 21 years. While it will be hard to say ‘goodbye’ to APRA and a role that I have loved, I am very much looking forward to this next chapter of my career.”
