Equip has replaced the role of chief financial officer with a chief risk officer to help meet Australian Prudential Regulatory Authority (APRA) guidelines for understanding all aspects of investment risk.
John Rodd stepped down from his role as chief financial officer at the fund earlier this month. It is believed his future intention is to pursue a role as a consultant to other financial institutions.
Equip has used Rodd’s resignation to rethink its priorities and has created the role of chief risk officer to cover compliance, financial and market risk.
Nick Vamvakas, formerly of ME Bank and Axa has been appointed to the new role.
The role of compliance is being transferred from head of legal at Equip. The fund accounting roles will stay with the chief risk officer.
The new role will help meet APRA priorities for funds to be fully cognisant of their risk profile.
In October, Helen Rowell, member for APRA, gave a group of Melbourne trustees the following warning.
“Are boards comfortable with the amount of risk being taken and how the performance and implementation of the strategy is being managed?
“In many cases, risk-appetite statements remain basic and need significant development before they become useful documents for trustees. As part of our interaction with boards, APRA’s focus will be on verifying that the risk appetite is actually informing the business and strategic planning of the trustee. The board should be setting and driving the risk appetite and we expect this to evolve over time.”
