Inaugural Financial Markets Authority (FMA) chief, Sean Hughes, will join Vanguard Australia next month as general counsel.
Hughes held the top NZ financial regulatory post from 2010 to 2013 as the Securities Commission morphed into the FMA before he moved to Australia as chief risk and legal officer for large superannuation fund, UniSuper.
Following a short stint as general counsel for Australian gambling concern, Tabcorp, Hughes returned to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for the third time in 2018 as commissioner.
He served as ASIC senior executive leader for corporate governance and corporations 2008-2010 and directory financial services regulators during a period of key legislative change for the Australian industry over 1999 to 2003.
Between his first two ASIC gigs, Hughes held top legal positions with ANZ and the National Australia Bank.
He departs for Vanguard, which was fined almost A$40,000 by ASIC last year for alleged ‘greenwashing’ breaches, 10 months before his official five-year term as commissioner with the regulator expires at the end of 2023.
Joe Longo, ASIC chair, said in a release: “We are grateful for the contribution Sean has made to ASIC in his role as Commissioner and wish him well in the next stage of his career.”
Vanguard Australia has revamped its operations in recent years to focus on the adviser and direct retail market, launching its long-anticipated superannuation scheme last November.
In 2020 the indexing giant gave notice it would exit the institutional mandate business in Australia in NZ, returning about A$160 billion to investors including at least $10 billion held by various KiwiSaver schemes.
Daniel Shrimski, Vanguard Australia managing director, said in a release that Hughes “brings a significant depth of experience in law, governance, regulation, financial services, wealth management, and risk into leading this critical function of the business”.
“… with Sean’s appointment, we continue to focus on building teams led by strong leaders who will ensure that the business remains aligned with the new and changing needs of our clients into the future, to offer them the best chance of investing success.”
Last December, Vanguard Australia veteran and former financial services media luminary, Robin Bowerman, retired, ending an almost 20-year career with the firm.
Bowerman joined Vanguard in 2003 as head of retail when passive investment was a relatively new phenomenon in Australasia.
He was instrumental in creating the first range of Vanguard exchange-traded funds on the ASX in 2009 just as the indexing boom took off in the retail market.
Before Vanguard Bowerman was an influential financial journalist, ending his media days as Fairfax managing editor investment magazines where he launched the now-defunct Asset publication, among others.