Join industry leaders, key regulators and legal experts to examine the practical implications of the current reform agenda currently facing the banking and financial services industry. Hear a keynote address from the Minister for Financial Services and an update from ASIC with a Q&A session included.  Benefit from a unique panel discussion featuring a cross-section of industry associations and consumer bodies to explore financial difficulties and hardship and the required industry response.  Unpack legislative reforms being implemented that impact privacy, security of information and identity management, cybersecurity, data breaches, SoCI and BNPL. Gain insight into effective complaint management at AFCA and ensure that you are aware of requirements for sustainable reporting and the latest trends in sustainable investments. Lastly, delve into recent regulatory proceedings in credit and financial services.

Presenters

The Hon Stephen Jones, Minister of Financial Services,
Stephen Jones is the Federal Member for Whitlam and Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services. Stephen was first elected to the Federal Parliament in 2010 representing the Southern Illawarra seat of Throsby. He was re-elected at the 2013 election and elected to the re-named seat of Whitlam in the 2016 election. Stephen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wollongong and a Bachelor of Laws degree from Macquarie University. Prior to entering the Federal Parliament he worked as a community worker for various front line disability services, youth and health services and as a lawyer with the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) and as the Secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).


Ian Lockhart, Partner, MinterEllison
Ian is a finance partner in the Brisbane office of MinterEllison and acts for Australian and foreign banks, credit unions and mutual banks, government and listed entities. His practice spans consumer credit, privacy, financial services, licensing, compliance with APRA prudential standards and anti-money laundering and counter terrorism financing compliance. His background in corporate finance also means that he can also bring a transactional perspective to the application of regulatory compliance obligations. Ian is a current member of the Banking and Financial Services Law Committee of the Queensland Law Society and served as the chair of that committee until recently for a period of 6 years.


Neva Skilton, Senior Ombudsman, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Neva Skilton is a senior ombudsman in AFCA’s small business and transactions team. She has a wealth of knowledge across all the different types of banking products, but specialises in transaction-based complaints, which includes scam complaints. Neva investigates and decides some of AFCA’s most complex scam complaints. She engages regularly with all sectors of the community about scams and the impact they have on both consumers and industry. Neva has held a variety of roles at AFCA, and its pre-decessor scheme, the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). Prior to joining FOS, Neva worked as a solicitor at a large commercial law firm, specialising in general insurance.


Alexandra Kelly, Director of Casework, Financial Rights Legal Centre
Alexandra is the Director of Casework at the Financial Rights Legal Centre, a community legal centre that specialises in helping consumer's understand and enforce their financial rights, especially low income and otherwise marginalised or vulnerable consumers. Alexandra has a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from The Australian National University, a Master of Laws (LLM) from The University of Sydney and is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors.


Andrea Beatty, Partner, Piper Alderman
Andrea specialises in financial services, banking and corporate law. Andrea brings legal capability and insight into regulatory matters, corporate governance, compliance and risk management. She assists her clients to adapt to the changing regulatory landscape to ensure they meet the expectations of their customers and shareholders and regulators. Andrea’s expertise extends to designing and conducting a broad range of financial services training for financial services providers, their senior executives and responsible managers, legal & compliance officers, consumer advocates and lawyers. Andrea advises domestic and foreign institutions on acquiring financial services and credit licences and exemptions. She specialises in advising on structuring and establishing financial services and credit businesses including licence obligations, drafting plain English documents, procedures, systems audits and online web application processes. She also advises on regulatory compliance projects and audits, regulatory enforcement defences, and regulator investigations and disputes. Andrea’s experience includes advising clients on financial products and channels, including FinTech solutions, peer to peer lending platforms, crowd funding, payment systems, crypto currency, reward programs, gift cards and financial services acquisitions, disposals and alliances. Andrea also has in-depth knowledge of privacy laws and regularly advises clients on data and privacy security and breach remediation. Andrea regularly develops and conducts independent reviews of AML/CTF programs. Andrea regularly conducts training programs and full day workshops for clients including Australian Credit Licence and Australian Financial Services Licence compulsory responsible managers training, privacy training, regulatory updates and “Back to Basics” credit law, privacy, anti-money laundering and other training workshops. Andrea is widely published and her authorships include 7 editions of the leading consumer law text ‘Annotated National Credit Code’ the most recent edition published on 22 December 2003 by LexisNexis, the ‘Australia’ chapters in the ‘Consumer Finance Law Review’ and the ‘Banking Regulation Review‘ (The Law Reviews, Law Business Research Ltd UK). Andrea is also a member of numerous financial services professional associations. She is the Deputy Chair of the Law Council Business Law Section Privacy Committee.


Gordon Campbell, CCO and Co-Founder of Rich Data Co
Gordon has been actively involved in product strategy and product development within three international software organisations, driving new capabilities from inception to market. He has extensive experience over all phases of the business solution lifecycle. As a senior industry solution director at Oracle, Gordon focused on transformation and innovation. He was responsible for all pillars of technology and applications with various executive and IT teams from companies including Westpac, NBNCo, AMP, Sydney Water, and Origin Energy. At Amdocs, Gordon worked on transformations and architecture in companies throughout Asia Pacific region. Gordon’s career began in chartered accountancy in New Zealand, and in parallel he undertook his ACA studies and later completed a CPIM, as well as leading an ISO9001 certification.


Olga Ganopolsky, General Counsel Privacy & Data, Macquarie Group
Olga Ganopolsky is Macquarie Group’s General Counsel - Privacy and Data and is versed in the subject of data protection with extensive experience in detailed privacy policy challenges, law reform and ongoing management of legal and strategic issues. Much of Olga’s work involves implementing new technologies and addressing privacy requirements in an increasingly complex co-regulatory and sometimes contentious environment. Most recently this has included work on implementations of GDPR and the reforms to Security of Critical Infrastructure Act and related regimes, artificial intelligence, CPS 234, Covid-19 related matters, the Consumer Data Right and addressing cross border issues considering the Schrems II Decision of the European Court of Justice and the newly updated Standard Contractual Clause as approved by the Commission.


Steven Klimt, Partner, Clayton Utz
Steven has been practising in the retail banking and financial services area for over 30 years. His practice covers documentation, procedures, forms and systems, and financial services regulatory issues including consumer credit, anti-money laundering. payment systems and privacy. His clients include many of Australia's leading financial institutions, Fintechs and finance companies. Steven is a contributing author to the CCH Australian Consumer Credit Law Reporter. He has been ranked in Best Lawyers Australia in Banking and Financial Services and Regulatory Practice for many years.


Craig Subocz, Partner, Piper Alderman
Craig is an intellectual property and technology lawyer with expertise in all facets of IT contracting and procurement, including advising on competitive procurement processes and the preparation and negotiation of supply and service contracts, such as anything-as-a-service, agile software development, hardware supply and maintenance contracts and managed services arrangements. He has also worked with clients to develop terms of use for electronic commerce platforms. Craig is experienced in data security and information privacy matters, such as preparing privacy and credit reporting policies, employee procedures and data breach response plans, as well as delivery of privacy training. Craig has a broad knowledge of Victorian and Commonwealth privacy laws, as well as the GDPR. Craig has advised a number of clients on compliance with the mandatory data breach notification requirements under the Privacy Act, including whether a data breach is notifiable and the preparation of notifications and applications for exemption from notification requirements. As a registered trade mark attorney, he has routinely advised and represented clients in relation to intellectual property protection, commercialisation and enforcement. Craig has worked with clients to recognise and protect their valuable intellectual property assets, including identifying those assets and taking steps to protect the assets through registration (if available). He has prepared and negotiated commercialisation agreements, including licence agreements, collaboration agreements and research and development agreements.


George Halikiotis, Principal, Piper Alderman
George has been providing specialist legal advice to the corporate and commercial sector for over 23 years. He has an outstanding reputation for his expertise in capital raising, restructuring, business succession planning and mergers & acquisitions. George is also highly skilled in superannuation law compliance, asset protection strategies and estate planning. His practice has evolved to meet the changing needs of his clients such as boutique capital and corporate advisory firms, SME’s, financial planning practices and high net worth individuals.


Katrina Hack, Head of Service Delivery – Banking, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Katrina has a 29-year career in the Financial Services sector. Katrina has occupied diverse leadership positions within prominent organisations, including NAB and ANZ. Her leadership has been characterised by a proactive involvement in critical areas such as acquisitions, system design, and strategic process transformations. In January 2022, she joined AFCA, commencing her tenure as Senior Manager of Insurance before being appointed into the Head of Service Delivery role for Banking and Finance.


Steve Blinkhorn, Director Legal Affairs, Australian Banking Association (ABA)
Steve Blinkhorn is the Director of Legal Affairs for the Australian Banking Association, based in Sydney. The ABA is an association of 20 member banks in Australia and works with government, regulators, and other stakeholders to improve public awareness and understanding of the industry’s contribution to the economy and, to ensure Australia’s banking customers continue to benefit from a stable, competitive, and accessible banking industry. In addition to assessing competition, insolvency, and freedom of information law requirements, Steve has been primarily responsible for updating the ABA’s new Banking Code of Practice which was approved by ASIC in June 2024 and is effective from February 2025.


Lisa Koch, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
Lisa Koch is a finance lawyer based in Sydney, where she is the Head of Office. She co-leads the Asia-Pacific Projects team, and leads the project finance team in Australia. Lisa is a recognised lawyer for Project Finance, Banking and Finance and Natural Resources in the Asia-Pacific Legal 500. She is qualified to practice in Australia (NSW), England and South Africa. Lisa advises on project finance and related transactions including acquisition and corporate finance primarily across natural resources, energy and infrastructure. Lisa has significant experience on complex cross-border and international transactions, with a particular focus on finance transactions in developing countries. A significant part of her practice is focused on energy transition and sustainability finance, including the financing of carbon offset generation projects.


James Morris, Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright
James Morris is a banking and finance partner based in Sydney. He is the head of our Australian Debt Capital Markets practice and the co-lead of our Australian Financial Services team. James’ practice spans a number of fields, offering more than 20 years experience. He is highly experienced with domestic and international debt capital markets (as the head of our Australian team) and cross border corporate, trade and structured finance. He is also one of Australia’s leading financial services regulatory advisors, providing complex advice to major Australian and international banks, global payments system providers and other institutions in areas such as financial services and bank licensing, AML/CTF, fintech, APRA regulations and standards and consumer credit. James is listed as one of Australia's leading banking and finance lawyers in Best Lawyers Australia, and a leading debt capital markets practitioner in both Australia and the APAC region in Chambers and Partners. He is a member of the Technical Committee of the Australian Corporate Treasury Association, and currently serves on the firm’s Australian board.


Frank Tao, Barrister, Ninth Floor Selbourne Chambers
Frank is a barrister at 9 Selborne Chambers, and previously a solicitor at Linklaters LLP, London and Henry Davis York, Sydney. He is admitted to practice in Australia and England & Wales. He specialises in company law, insolvency and bankruptcy law, banking and financial services disputes, and contentious regulatory proceedings. Frank routinely advises and represents banks and financial services providers, companies, directors, and insolvency practitioners in connection with commercial litigation, civil penalty proceedings, and regulators’ investigations and administrative actions. Among other matters, Frank is currently representing two CFD providers in unrelated civil penalty proceedings brought by ASIC.


Matthew Thornton-Dibb, Special Counsel, Norton Rose Fulbright
Matthew is an environmental and sustainability lawyer based in Sydney. He has a particular interest in energy and sustainability offsets project development, sustainability markets, and sustainability disclosure. He is qualified to practice in Australia (NSW) and South Africa. Matthew advises on environment and planning aspects of major projects, with a particular focus on renewable energy. Matthew’s practice includes front end advisory work in relation to project planning, development and operation, as well as back-end work concerning project approval related disputes. Matthew also regularly advises across numerous ESG related areas including on climate-related financial disclosure laws, greenwashing risk, greenhouse gas emissions reporting, and the use of carbon offsets. Matthew recently co-authored the Governance Institutes essential guide to navigating Greenwashing governance risks and is a member of the IUCN’s World Commission on Environmental Law.


Natalie William, Senior Associate, Clayton Utz
Natalie is a Senior Associate practising in retail banking and financial services regulation at Clayton Utz. Natalie has held roles in-house and in private practice and has experience in privacy and data protection, consumer credit, small business lending, retail banking and anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing. Natalie holds a Professional Banking Fundamentals qualification from FINSIA.


Tami Sokol, Ombudsman, Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA)
Tami is a very experienced AFCA ombudsman, with significant Tami is a Banking and Finance Ombudsman at the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) working predominantly in scams disputes. Tami has particular expertise assisting vulnerable consumers navigate complex and sensitive disputes, is a member of AFCA’s Reconciliation Network and is AFCA’s representative on the Australian New Zealand Ombudsman Association (ANZOA) sub-committee for service delivery to consumers experiencing vulnerability. Prior to coming to AFCA, Tami worked as a senior regulatory lawyer in strategic policy at the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and as a senior consumer and financial services specialist lawyer at Legal Aid NSW.