Brian Gray Scholarship Program Established

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) and the Reserve Bank of Australia have established the Brian Gray Scholarship program in memory of Brian Gray, who died on 24 August last year while serving as Executive General Manager of APRAs Policy, Research and Consulting Division.

The Brian Gray Scholarship program will fund four scholarships annually, to the value of $12,500 each. It will focus on honours year students, although postgraduate students can apply.

The Brian Gray Scholarship is open to any Australian/New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, studying a topic of relevance to APRA. Topics include the economics of regulation as well as those relating to banking, insurance and superannuation, particularly the prudential supervision and financial soundness of these industries, as well as econometric and statistical studies using APRAs databases. As part of the scholarship, students will devote 500 or so hours to an agreed research topic, benefiting from access to APRA expertise and materials.

Mr Graeme Thompson, APRAs Chief Executive Officer, said: "Brians death was a sad shock to us all. He spent over two decades shaping policy at the Reserve Bank, and subsequently at APRA from its formation in 1998. He was known for his warmth and humour and for his interest in developing and guiding others, so it is fitting that his legacy includes supporting tomorrows experts in prudential supervision and regulation."

APRA will shortly circulate application information to Australian universities.

APRA is the prudential regulator of the financial services industry including banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry. It currently regulates and maintains $1.5 trillion in assets for 20 million Australians.

For further information:	Media Enquiries only:
APRA Call Centre	Susan Morey
1300 131 060	APRA - Public Affairs
	02 9210 3384
	0438 124 524

About Brian Gray

Brian Gray graduated with First Class Honours in economics from Sydney University and joined the Reserve Bank as an economist in 1977. There he had a distinguished career of 21 years and held senior positions in Economic Research, Securities Markets and Bank Supervision. Immediately before APRAs formation in 1998, Brian was a Chief Manager in the Bank Supervision Department with responsibility for risk analysis and policy development. He was instrumental in designing prudential policy in areas such as loan securitisation and the market risk capital requirements for Australian banks.

Brian joined APRA at its inception with executive responsibility for development of prudential policies covering all financial institutions, research activities and APRAs specialist risk analysis groups. He was a major force in designing a supervision framework for conglomerate groups and in APRAs reform proposals for supervising insurance companies. He also was involved in superannuation reform.

Brian was highly respected in the Australian financial community and in Government. He was also well known and influential internationally, making significant contributions to Basel Committee work on its Core Principles for Effective Banking Supervision and reform of the International Capital Accord for banks. He co-chaired an important conference on supervising financial groups in London in 2000.

Brian is survived by his wife Cathy and children Michelle, Joanne and Michael