Ms O’Dwyer said Ms Mackay is a highly regarded financial planner, and will bring the perspective of small financial firms to the new Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) board.

As well as being an APESB director, Ms Mackay is also director and a principal adviser at Quantum Financial, as well as a member of the ASIC external advisory panel.

Other appointees to the AFCA board include Equipsuper independent chair Andrew Fairley, CHOICE director of campaigns and communications Erin Turner, and lawyer, mediator and small-to-medium enterprise (SME) advocate Alan Wein.

Alongside Ms Coonan, the three new appointments will take effect from 4 May.

“I am confident that each board member will make a valuable contribution to guide the new authority to ensure it delivers on its important mandate,” Ms O’Dwyer said.

AFCA will be governed by a board of 11 directors, consisting of an independent chair and an equal number of industry and consumer directors.

In addition, a minority of the directors will be appointed by Ms O’Dwyer.

Ms O’Dwyer also announced the authorisation of Australian Financial Complaints Limited, the entity that will operate AFCA.

AFCA will begin accepting complaints from 1 November.