The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has announced four recipients of the Brian Gray Scholarship, who have each been awarded $12,500 for research into the financial sector.

They are Nicholas Preston, an honours candidate, Bachelor of Actuarial Studies and Bachelor of Science (Finance), Australian National University; James Starr, an honours candidate, Bachelor of Commerce, Monash University; Jamie Tao, an honours candidate, Bachelor of Commerce, University of NSW; and James Watson, an honours candidate, Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Commerce, University of Melbourne.

Their research covers the ability of households to cope with wealth shocks, syndicated loans, put and call options. Jamie Tao is working on “capturing non-exchangeable dependence in multiple lines of insurance using Levy copulas”.

The program was established by APRA and the Reserve Bank in memory of Brian Gray, who was APRA’s EGM Policy Research and Consulting.