APRA announces 2018 Brian Gray Scholarship recipients

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) today announced the recipients of the 2018 Brian Gray Scholarship.

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, valued at $15,000 each, support students studying topics relating to the financial sector.

The recipients of the 2018 scholarship are:

• June Chan – PhD candidate, Doctor of Philosophy, University of New South Wales;
• Mitchell Harvey – Honours candidate, Bachelor of Economics, Monash University; and
• Kevin Krahe – Honours candidate, Bachelor of Actuarial Studies & Bachelor of Economics, University of New South Wales.

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:

• Issues in funds governance – June Chan;
• Asset Bubbles and Monetary Policy Shocks: Is there a relationship? Conducting quantitative research exploring if there is a relationship between monetary policy shocks and asset bubbles – Mitchell Harvey; and
• Improving the hedging of risk associated with retirement income portfolios and developing a “value-based longevity index” to improve hedging efficiency and reducing basis risk – Kevin Krahe.

The scholarship program is open to Australian and New Zealand citizens and permanent residents who are 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 at: https://www.apra.gov.au/brian-gray-scholarship-program