APRA announces 2017 Brian Gray Scholarship recipients

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The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) today announced the four recipients of the 2017 Brian Gray Scholarship to study topics in the financial sector. 

The Brian Gray Scholarship program was established by APRA and the Reserve Bank of Australia in September 2002 in memory of Brian Gray, APRA's former Executive General Manager, Policy Research and Consulting, who spent more than two decades shaping regulatory policy in the financial area in his roles at the RBA and APRA. The scholarships are valued at $15,000 each. 

The recipients of the 2017 scholarship are; 

• Igor Balnozan – Honours candidate, Bachelor of Actuarial Studies, University of New South Wales;
• Christina Bui – PhD candidate, Doctor of Philosophy, University of Technology, Sydney;
• Kiefer de Silva – Honours candidate, Bachelor of Commerce & Bachelor of Laws, Monash University; and
• Matthew Morris – Honours candidate, Bachelor of Business, University of Technology, Sydney.

Under this Scholarship program, the recipients will devote a substantial amount of time to an agreed research topic and present their findings to APRA upon completion of their research. The scholarship recipients will be researching the following topics;

• Modelling heterogeneous drawdown behaviours in phased withdrawal retirement income products - Igor Balnozan;
• The effects of revenue diversification on financial stability - Christina Bui;
• On the composition of capital buffers and bank size - Kiefer de Silva; and
• Consumer choice of default options under accountability - Matthew Morris.

The Scholarship 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 is available on the APRA website here.