Yes, it’s true, from the AFR:
Carol Schwartz, a high-profile business woman involved in retail, property and philanthropy, will replace Heather Ridout on the Reserve Bank of Australia’s nine-member board.
Ms Schwartz, who sits on the board of property group Stocklands and has held a directorship at Bank of Melbourne and been national president of the Property Council of Australia, will join the RBA board for five years starting on February 14.
A prolific tweeter, with more than 14,000 followers on the social media platform – almost certainly a record for any Reserve Bank board member, a group that tends to be dominated by media-shy middle-aged men – Ms Schwartz is widely known as a staunch advocate for women in leadership.
She says she hopes to bring more diversity to the Reserve Bank board from the “real coal face experience” of investing in and operating small to medium sized businesses as well as from the community sector.
Yes, it’s the same RBA board member currently pushing this little shocker:
Real estate financier Qualitas, backed by Carol and Alan Schwartz, has seeded a start-up that allows small investors to offer home loans to Asian buyers shunned by the major banks.
Peer Estate, founded by former Qualitas executive Adam Broder and ANZ banking tech expert Phil Aarons, and seeded with Qualitas funding, is an online marketplace where investors can provide as little as $5000 to fund a first mortgage for an overseas buyer.
“Property debt is an asset class everyone understands. However, historically in this country only the ultra-wealthy or institutions have had the ability to secure the outsized returns for relatively low risk from this asset class,” Mr Broder told told The Australian Financial Review.
Clearly not everyone understands it, most notably Mr Broder, who fails to mention the long litany of extreme risks.
Another triumph for the Real Estate Treasurer.
