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A former CBA banker is set to join the Reserve Bank of Australia as its new head of banking.
Australia’s central bank has announced that Sarah Brown, the former general manager and crew lead, payments for business banking at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), will take up the position as the head of banking at the RBA in February 2025.
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Brown takes over the role from acting head Emma Sacre (who herself took over following the promotion of Michael Plumb to head of economic analysis) and brings more than 20 years of experience in senior roles from across the corporate, banking, and financial services sectors.
She mostly recently held several senior positions in business and retail banking at CBA and was also previously a director of investment banking at investment banking group UBS.
In addition to this, she also has experience in complex change projects and transformation, including as head of productivity transformation for CBA’s retail banking services.
In her new role as head of banking at the RBA, Brown will head up the department that provides specialised banking services to the Australian government and also serves overseas central banks and official institutions.
According to the RBA, in the last financial year, the RBA processed more than $1.65 trillion in banking payments and transactions.
As well as hiring a new head of banking, the RBA is also set to this year welcome a new head of economic research.
Daniel Rees has been appointed to take on the role in July 2025, leading the bank’s efforts to evolve the RBA’s research strategy and improve the way we bring research insights into our policy process and deliberations.
This includes promoting greater engagement with universities and think tanks.
Rees has previously worked at the RBA, having been the head of macro-economic modelling between 2016 and 2019, along with other senior economic roles at the central bank.
He is currently working at the Bank for International Settlements as principal economist and adviser to the general manager.
A new-look RBA
The two appointments come as the RBA prepares for a major structural change this year.
From 1 March 2025, the central bank will have two boards: one to manage monetary policy and the other in charge of governance.
The federal Treasurer recently named former Bendigo and Adelaide Bank boss Marnie Baker and Australian National University professor Renée Fry-McKibbin to the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) new interest rate-setting board.
Long-serving CEO and managing director Baker left her post at the end of August after being at the helm of the banking group since 2018 and working at the bank for 35 years.
Fry-McKibbin – who was on the panel leading the RBA Review in 2022–23 – has been a professor at the Australian National University for more than 22 years, describing herself as an “economist, educator and scholar”.
This year, the RBA will meet on the following dates:
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17–18 February
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31 March–1 April
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19–20 May
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7–8 July
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11–12 August
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29–30 September
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3–4 November
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8–9 December
[Related: Ex-banking boss appointed to RBA monetary policy board]
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