The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) has welcomed Swati Dave to its independent board.
Dave will serve three years on the board, which has eight directors with expertise covering banking and finance, insurance, investments and advice and superannuation.
She will replace Jennifer Darbyshire who has served on the AFCA board since it began in November 2018.
Dave has over 30 years of banking and financial services experience, including 10 years at NAB and roles at Deutsche Bank, AMP and Westpac.
More recently she has worked in a number of board roles including on the investment committee at QIC Global Infrastructure, chief executive of Export Finance Australia, and non-executive director at SAS Trustee Corporation.
Professor John Pollaers OAM, independent chair of AFCA, said: “Dave brings to the board a deep commitment to excellence, innovation and social impact. Her leadership and expertise have enabled her to make significant contributions to the various organisations in which she has served, and we look forward to benefiting from her experience and insights.
“The board is committed to ensuring that AFCA continues to be an effective, efficient, independent and fair external dispute resolution scheme for financial services. Dave’s diverse experience as an executive and board director will be invaluable as AFCA works to provide clear member and community value.”
Dave added: “A fair and trusted financial services sector underpins our country’s continued success and I’m excited to be joining the board as we continue to evolve as a world-leading ombudsman.”
As well as Dave and Pollaers, the board includes Carmel Franklin, Gerard Brody, Delia Rickard, Erin Turner, Gary Dransfield, Andrew Fairley and Claire Mackay.
In the last financial year, AFCA received 97,000 complaints and has helped secure $1.1 billion in compensation for consumers since 2018.
3 years at AMP and over 15 years in banks. She would know unethical advice when she sees it. I suppose one way to pass an ethics test would be to reflect on what has happened where you have worked in the past and do the opposite.