The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has awarded four student scholarships for 2007 under the Brian Gray Scholarship Program to:

• Vinko Matic, Australian National University (Honours in Actuarial Studies);
• Aiden Hallet, Australian National University (Honours in Actuarial Studies/Finance);
• Matthew Pollard, Australian National University (Honours in Philosophy, Science); and
• Jaan Simpson, University of Melbourne (Honours in Commerce, Linguistics and Actuarial Studies).

The Program funds up to four scholarships annually to the value of $12,500 each. Recipients of this year’s scholarships displayed a keen interest in issues relevant to the financial sector as well as excellent academic results. Under the terms of the Program, the recipients will be required to devote a substantial amount of time to an agreed research topic.

The research topics are statistical models in the context of bond and option pricings; the impact on equity markets of rumours and private information disseminated through particular media; the effect of a pandemic on the Australian life insurance industry; and a discrete time renewal risk model with general interclaim times and its application to modelling insurance risk.

The Brian Gray Scholarship Program was established by APRA and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in September 2002 in memory of Brian Gray, APRA’s former Executive General Manager – Policy Research and Consulting. Mr Gray spent more than two decades shaping regulatory policy in his role at the RBA and later at APRA.

The Program is open to Australian and New Zealand citizens and permanent residents, who are currently studying a topic of relevance to prudential regulation. While the Program focuses on honours year students, postgraduate students can also apply.

More information on the Brian Gray Scholarship Program is available on APRA’s website at www.apra.gov.au/Careers/Brian-Gray-Scholarship-Program.cfm.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is the prudential regulator of the financial services industry. It oversees banks, credit unions, building societies, general insurance and reinsurance companies, life insurance, friendly societies, and most members of the superannuation industry. APRA is funded largely by the industries that it supervises. It was established on 1 July 1998. APRA currently supervises institutions holding approximately $2.5 trillion in assets for 20 million Australian depositors, policyholders and superannuation fund members.

Media and industry inquiries only:
Andrew McCutcheon, Public Affairs Manager
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
Telephone: 02 9210 3143
Mobile: 0417 528 660

All other inquiries:
APRA Contact Centre 1300 131 060