Update from FSC CEO Sally Loane

I want to begin by thanking everyone who attended the FSC Summit in Melbourne last month. Whilst in the midst of massive shifts in our industry, it is testament to the value the event provides in bringing all parts of the financial services sector together to lean in to our challenges, understand how we can deliver a brighter future and to share our experiences with our colleagues. You all helped make it a resounding success.

The stand out theme of the two day event was trust. All of us have been challenged by many of the issues examined by the Royal Commission. It was vital to have representatives from the regulators there to be upfront about what they expect from the sector and they certainly didn’t pull any punches. ASIC chairman James Shipton was clear about the need for financial services companies to look closely at conflicts of interest, urging the financial industry to “move from rhetoric to reality” in restoring the trust deficit with the Australian public.

Later in the conference Justice Neville Owen, the Royal Commissioner into the collapse of HIH in the early 2000s, focused on governance, ethics and doing the right thing.

What stood out to me from the Summit was the willingness of panel members who came from industry to answer the tough questions, analyse where we are and put forward ways we might move forward.

I chaired a panel to close out the Summit on day two which posed some really interesting questions about dealing with what BT chief executive Brad Cooper called “the pressure in the system”, the extent of which, he said, he’s never seen before.

Ming Long, Independent Chairman, Responsible Entities & Trustee Boards, AMP Capital, zeroed in on what directors in the sector are feeling right now – anger, uncertainty and despair – and offered that we need to remember what it feels like so there are no repeats.

With the Royal Commission hearings recommencing, these reflections will be all important. As I told Sky News Business’s Ticky Fullerton when I appeared on her show last week, nobody is under any illusions that this is not a challenging time for our sector but the important thing now is to face forward into it.

I like what ASIC’s James Shipton says about trust – he says there are three things that need to be applied for the long-haul:

1. Competence –make sure people have the rights skills and knowledge to do the job;
2. Care – the extent to which a person actually wants to do a good job;
3. Ethics – do the right thing, even when no-one is watching.

Rinse and repeat.

Before I sign off I want to thank all of my FSC team and our conference partners for making the event such a success. We are already thinking about next year!

And finally I would like to thank our member organisations and some individuals for their enormous generosity in raising $133,000 for our charity alliance partner, the First Nations Foundation at the Summit Dinner. Over the past six years we’ve supported FNF, FSC members have raised $1.2 million for the foundation, which has to date recovered $7 million of lost super for Indigenous Australians. Such fantastic work, it’s been a privilege to be involved. The Foundation has new partners now and we wish Amanda Young and Ian Hamm the very best for the future.