James Shipton, a former hedge fund manager at Goldman Sachs and one-time head of licensing at the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, will replace outgoing ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft in February next year.Shipton, who gained law qualifications from Monash and Melbourne universities, has spent most of his career working as a corporate lawyer and investment banker - although since 2016 he has been the executive director of the international financial systems program at Harvard University.While the Labor Opposition yesterday hinted that it was unlikely to stand in the way of Shipton getting the job, the country's most vocal consumer advocates declined to comment on his appointment.Banking Day sought responses from CHOICE and other influential consumer advocates in the financial services sector.CHOICE's silence on the news of Shipton's appointment might reflect some concern over what the former investment banker intends to do in the role.That concern might have intensified a tad after the publication of a transcript of a joint press conference that Shipton held yesterday in Canberra with financial services minister Kelly O'Dwyer.At no stage during the press conference did Shipton mention the word 'consumer', choosing instead to refer to ASIC's stakeholders as 'investors', 'market participants' and 'financial institutions'.Midway through the presser O'Dwyer pounced on a journalist's question directed at Shipton, possibly to remind the incoming ASIC boss about the regulator's core responsibility to consumers:JOURNALIST: The Government's done a bit in recent years to boost the resources and the powers of ASIC in response to the banking situation. Are you happy with the framework that you're inheriting, or would you like to have an audit of your powers and so forth and suggest changes, or you think it's…MINISTER O'DWYER: I might start first with that Phil because I think it's very important that the regulator keeps the consumer at the heart of their thinking. The regulator is there to protect the consumer ultimately and it performs a very important role in the market. We believe in a very strongly resourced ASIC, an ASIC that has teeth, an ASIC that has powers to be able to take action when harm's occurred.When asked to give an assessment of the conduct of Australia's big banks, Shipton could only dole out a lame answer."I've been observing from afar and I've made the observation this is a global challenge and that all financial institutions need to continue their hard work on improving their organisation dynamics and their own organisation culture," he said.Shipton's public debut as an Australian regulator indicates that he might be prone to taking a less edgy approach to the four major local banks than outgoing ASIC chair, Greg Medcraft.If that turns out to be the case then consumer advocates will no doubt be agitating for the contract of ASIC deputy chair, Peter Kell, to be extended by the federal government.Kell, a former director of CHOICE, has only six months to run on his term at the regulator. Gerard Brody, the chief executive of the Consumer Action Law Centre in Melbourne, said