APRA finds its first chief data officer

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has appointed Surabhi Jain as its inaugural chief data officer, following Jain's departure from Westpac Institutional Bank in March.

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority chief data officer Surabhi Jain.

Jain started at APRA earlier this month. The regulator created the role to lead the data branch of its new technology and data division, which it created in February. 

The new technology and data division brought together APRA’s enterprise services technology team and the core data capabilities teams from its data analytics and insights division.

Jain will “set the strategic direction and business plan of the data branch” and report to Bruce Young who was made head of the new division in March when he was promoted from general manager of operational resilience to executive director of technology and data.

The data branch helps APRA meet its mandate "to help protect the Australian community through data-enabled decision-making,” according to the recruitment advertisement that APRA released when it created the role in March. 

The watchdog’s functions include collecting data from the financial sector and enforcing authorised deposit-taking institutions’ reporting obligations through the modernised economic and financial statistics scheme.

Jain will also “develop data procedures and policies, and work closely with various departments to collect, prepare, organise, protect, and analyse data assets while ensuring that APRA meets the required governance and privacy standards.”

Data is a core feature of APRA’s compliance responsibilities.

In its most recent annual report [pdf], APRA said that in the 2021-2022 financial year, a new data collection platform called “APRA Connect” was launched as part of its plan to “enhance data-driven decision-making.” 

“It has also been developed to improve APRA’s capacity to collect data on behalf of other government agencies, under the principle of ‘collect once and share'," the authority said.

The new APRA Connect infrastructure was also used to launch phase two of a superannuation data transformation in April 2022, it continued. 

“This phase of the project lifts the breadth, depth and quality of the data APRA collects from the superannuation industry, providing APRA with a better analytical capacity and providing for further improvements in superannuation transparency," it said.

Jain has more than 22 years of experience in data management roles across the financial services, telecommunication, media and the airline industries. 

She was Westpac Institutional Bank’s chief data officer for two-and-a-half years. 

Before that, she worked at HSBC for 12 years, holding various roles at the bank. 

She began at HSBC as a senior database administrator in 2008. In January 2017 she was promoted to global head of data risks and controls and moved to London; in May 2017 she was moved again when she was promoted chief data officer for Hong Kong.

Westpac Institutional Bank has not advertised for a replacement for Jain.

Its head of change execution and data Sandeep Chandra has taken carriage of the accountability for the data responsibilities previously in Jain’s remit.