Briefs: RBNZ's Spencer appointed to OECD role, AFG appoints new GM, Payments NZ widens membership 25 March 2015 4:26PM Banking Day staff Briefs, Reserve Bank of New Zealand deputy governor Grant Spencer has been appointed chair of the OECD's Committee on Financial Markets. The Committee manages the work program of the OECD's Financial and Enterprise Affairs Directorate, focusing on structural issues, trends and developments in financial markets and the financial sector. Spencer also chairs the EMEAP working group on financial markets, a cooperative organisation of 11 East Asia and Pacific central banks. Australia's largest mortgage aggregator AFG has appointed Chris Slater to the role of general manager AFG Home Loans. Slater has been at AFG for eight years and moves to his new role from the own-label division, where he was head of sales and operations. AFG managing director Brett McKeon said in a media release that AFG Home Loans was a key plank of the company's business strategy. New Zealand's payments standards body, Payments NZ, has widened its membership base with 11 new, mostly non-bank, organisations joining the organisation. Payments NZ was set up in 2010 to take over payment system responsibilities from the NZ Bankers Association. Its direct settlement participants (ANZ, ASB, BNZ, Citibank, Deutsche Bank, HSBC, ICBC, KIWI, NZ Depository, TSB and Westpac) have now been joined by Rabobank. Paymark and Progressive Enterprises have joined as "infrastructure members", providing infrastructure services to the operation of the clearing systems. Foodstuffs, Co-op Money NZ, MasterCard New Zealand, Semble, Smartpay Holdings, S.W.I.F.T. Services Australia, Paystation Limited (a Trade Me unit), and Z Energy have all joined as industry members, to be "part of industry-focused strategic conversations and strategic initiatives." Areas that Payments NZ has been focusing on include simplified account switching, managing the decline of cheque use, and standards for contactless payments.