The AusPayNet Summit

One of Australia’s leading personal finance commentators, Effie Zahos has nearly three decades of experience in consumer finance topics including banking, investing and property. She has a knack for making money matters simple.

Starting out as a graduate trainee for one of Australia’s major banks she moved to TV in 1997, kick-starting her career in finance journalism as head researcher of Channel Nine’s Money Show. Effie is now back at Nine as 9News Money Editor.

Effie was editor of Money magazine until 2019, having helped establish it in 1999.

She is also the author of The Great $20 Adventure and A Real Girl’s Guide to Money and Ditch the Debt and Get Rich.

Effie sits on the board of directors for Ecstra, a not-for-profit organisation committed to building the financial capability of all Australians and digital wealth platform, InvestSMART.

John Brogden is an experienced Chairman, Non-Executive Director, Executive and former Member of Parliament with more than 30 years’ experience in the public sector, financial services, professional associations, and not-for-profit organisations.

From 1996 to 2005, John was the Member for Pittwater in the NSW Parliament and was Leader of the Opposition for over three years – the youngest person ever to lead a major political party at a state or federal level. After Parliament, his executive roles have included CEO of Manchester Unity, the Financial Services Council, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and Landcom. He has chaired Abacus Australian Mutuals (now COBA) and Landcom (prior to being appointed CEO).

John is a leading Australian and international suicide prevention advocate and campaigner for suicide decriminalisation. He has been President of LifeLine International and Chair of Lifeline Australia.

He is currently the Chair of AusPayNet, a Director of CFS’ superannuation fund AIL, and the Chair of Advisory Board of the Urban Property Group.

He holds a Master of Public Affairs (MPA) from the University of Sydney, is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and is a Member of the Order of Australia (AM).

Dr Sean Carmody is the Executive Director for the Policy and Advice Division of the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA). In the role he leads the development of APRA’s prudential policy across banking, insurance and superannuation (pension funds). He also has responsibility for APRA’s resolution and enforcement functions.

Sean has over 20 years experience across banking, financial markets and funds management. Prior to joining APRA in 2017 he had extensive experience in risk management, including credit and market risk, working across banking and funds management. His qualifications include a PhD in Pure Mathematics from St John's College, Cambridge.

Sean is also APRA’s executive lead for climate risk and, in this capacity, he represents APRA in a number of international regulatory forums including the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) and the International Association of Insurance Supervisor’s Climate Risk Steering Group. Sean is also the Co-Chair of the NGFS’s Task Force on Adaptation.

Joe Garner is an experienced and accomplished former CEO who believes passionately in delivering lasting success with humanity and purpose – particularly through tough times. Joe is now working as an advisor to Chief Executives across public and private sector and to the UK Government (in 2023) and the Royal Household through his role on the independent Queen Elizabeth Memorial Committee.

Joe’s career started with Procter & Gamble in 1991 working predominantly in Romania to help lead P&G’s expansion in Central and Eastern Europe.

After a brief spell as founder of an internet start-up, in 2001 he joined Dixons/Currys. In 2004 Joe joined HSBC rising to lead HSBC’s UK retail division through the Great Financial Crisis of 2008 and was promoted to Head of HSBC in the UK. In 2014 he became Chief Executive Officer of Openreach – BT’s infrastructure division. During his tenure and in partnership with local and central Government, he led the deployment of superfast broadband to over 90% of UK homes.

In 2016, Joe joined Nationwide Building Society as CEO and led the organisation through Brexit and COVID. He successfully grew the mutual’s business to record profit, leading employee engagement and an unbroken seven-year spell as number one for customer service in the industry. Joe served as a non-executive director of the Financial Ombudsman Service from 2008-2010 and sat on the Board of the UK Finance – the industry association – for six years. He was also both Chair and a member of the Financial Regulator’s Practitioner Panel for over 10 years.

In July 2023 Joe was commissioned by the Chancellor to lead a review into the future of payments. The Review has been published here and the Government have committed to implement the key recommendations – most notably to create a National Payments Vision. Joe is continued in an advisory role to the Government until the publication of the National Payments Vision in November 2024.

In February 2024 Joe was appointed by the Cabinet Office to the committee responsible for recommending proposals for a permanent memorial and legacy programme to remember Queen Elizabeth II.

Joe is passionate about the value of physical and mental wellbeing in leadership. He is a Patron of British Triathlon and a GB age group competitor, finishing 18th at the 2024 World Championships in Spain. He was Chair of the British Triathlon charity from 2013 to 2021. Joe is also a keen tennis player and since 2023 has served as Chair of the charity Tennis First. Joe is a fellow of King’s College School, Wimbledon.

Joe has recently published a book entitled “52 Hard Learned Learned Lessons for Leaders” in support of his advisory work.

Riaz Hussain is Head of Security Standards & Transformation at Australian Payments Network (AusPayNet). He is responsible for security standards, frameworks, and policies for payments, including sponsorship of industry-wide programmes.

Riaz has more than 30 years’ experience in technology leadership across financial services in the Asia Pacific, Europe, and United States. He holds an Masters Degree of Science from Sheffield Hallam University, UK.

Dr Brad Jones was appointed to the position of Assistant Governor (Financial System) at the RBA in 2022 and serves as Deputy Chair of the Payments System Board.

Dr Jones has oversight of the Bank's payments policy work, including on the future of money. He is also responsible for the Bank's work on financial stability and production of the twice-yearly Financial Stability Review. He represents the Bank as a member on the Council of Financial Regulators, and in international fora at the Financial Stability Board and the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Institute of Global Finance and a signatory to The Banking and Finance Oath.

Dr Jones joined the RBA in 2018 as the Head of International Department, before taking over as the Head of Economic Analysis Department.

Before joining the RBA, Dr Jones was at the International Monetary Fund in Washington DC for five years, where he served as senior advisor on the international financial system in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department. Prior to that, he held senior macroeconomic research and investment responsibilities for just under a decade at Deutsche Bank in London and Hong Kong.

Dr Jones holds a PhD in finance from Macquarie University, is a graduate member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, and served for five years as a Fellow at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School.

Mr James Kelly commenced as Deputy Secretary, Markets Group in March 2025.

In this role, James advises the Australian Government on issues relating to Australia’s financial system, competition policy (including consumer protections), corporations law and digital policy related matters.

Before this role, James was First Assistant Secretary, Digital, Competition and Payments Division. His responsibilities included matters related to the payments system, digital assets, the Consumer Data Right, digital regulatory policy, competition policy and oversight of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

James’ previous positions in Treasury included heading the Financial System Division and Macroeconomic Policy Division. He was Treasury’s representative in Europe, based at the Australian High Commission in London. He also co-led Treasury’s engagement with the Financial Services Royal Commission and implementation of the government response.

James was the Head of Secretariat for the initial phase of the National Disability Insurance Review from 2022–23. James holds degrees in economics and law from the Australian National University and the University of New South Wales.

With over two decades of experience in financial crimes operations, analytics, and product management, Giselle joined Indue in August 2022 as Head of Financial Crimes. She leads a team of specialists dedicated to 24/7 protection against fraud, scams, and money laundering. Under her leadership, the team also manages fraud and AML compliance and reporting obligations as part of Indue’s ADI responsibilities. 

Giselle’s career spans leadership roles at a Big 4 bank, global payment intermediary, major insurer, a mutual financial institution, and global fraud and regtech providers. She is a recognised subject matter expert in payments protection, with a focus on intelligence-led, customer-centric financial crime risk management.

Lynda is a career banker with over 25 years’ experience in Banking and Financial services. Lynda is Chair of the Australian Economic Crime Forum. The Economic Crime Forum brings together a broad range of participants led by law enforcement, and including intelligence agencies, regulators, representatives from AusPayNet’s membership and other key stakeholders in the payments ecosystem – to share intelligence on emerging threats and collaborate on joint responses and tactical initiatives to prevent all forms of economic crime

Lynda is also Deputy Chair of Australian Payments Network and co-chair of the APAC Financial Coalition for Child Protection.

Lynda is Head of Payments Representation for the Commonwealth Bank of Australia Group.

Daniel Mulino is the Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services.

He has been the Member for Fraser since 2019. Born in Italy, Daniel is passionate about Fraser’s harmonious multicultural community and is honoured to represent this wonderful part of Melbourne’s west in the Australian Parliament.

Between 2022 and 2025, Daniel chaired the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Economics.

Daniel is an economist by training, with a PhD from Yale University and he has lectured at Monash University.

Before entering the Australian Parliament, Daniel served the Victorian community as a member of the Victorian Parliament. He was Parliamentary Secretary to the Victorian Treasurer between 2014 and the 2018.

Daniel is the author of Safety Net: The Future of Welfare in Australia, published in 2022.

Kate is one of the five ASIC Commissioners and started her term in September 2023. She has more than 25 years’ experience in law and regulation across financial services, markets, and corporations.

Kate joined ASIC from Treasury, where she held senior leadership positions with responsibility for data and digital economic reforms, COVID economic policy responses, small business policy and regulatory frameworks governing market conduct.

Kate previously held senior executive roles at ASIC with responsibility for corporate transactions and governance, and practised in the Sydney and New York offices of the law firm Sullivan and Cromwell.

Nick Stanescu is an executive vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and the chief executive of the FedNow® Service. He leads the FedNow group that has responsibility for the Federal Reserve System’s round-the-clock real-time payment and settlement service that supports instant payments in the United States. In this role, he has responsibility for FedNow Core delivery functions that include technology, product, and program management. Most recently, Nick served as FedNow business executive since program inception in August 2019.

Before joining the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Nick held several executive and senior level roles within the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, including as the Head of Payments Product Management where he had business responsibility for Fedwire Funds and National Settlement Services on behalf of the twelve Federal Reserve Banks. Collectively, these services clear and settle financial transactions exceeding $4 trillion per day and are a foundational underpinning of the United States financial system.

Nick received a bachelor’s degree from Rutgers University and an MBA from New York University, Stern School of Business.

Andy White is the CEO of AusPayNet, the industry association and self-regulatory body for the Australian payments industry.

Mr White has over 25 years’ international experience. He joined AusPayNet in 2015 from the Australian Securities Exchange, where he was General Manager for Settlement Services and, prior to that, General Manager for Clearing Risk Management. Previously, he held leadership roles at LCH.Clearnet in London, after starting his career at the Bank of England.

Mr White is a graduate of Oxford University and the Australian Institute of Company Directors. He holds a variety of advisory and board roles, including with the Payment Card Industry and Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre.