Mutual ADIs and other cooperatives may get a leg up from the Australian government, with Greg Hammond appointed as an independent facilitator charged with developing a government response to reforms laid out for the sector. Hammond, will "conduct consultations on the recommendations of the Senate Economic References Committee report on Cooperative, Mutual and Member-owned Firms," the treasurer, Scott Morrison, said on Friday.Hammond is well known to the ADI sector, and a director of G&C Mutual Bank. Mark Degotardi, chief executive of the Customer Owned Banking Association, said "COBA has worked with Greg Hammond in recent years on regulatory capital issues."Morrison said Hammond would "make recommendations to the Government on whether there should be regulatory or legislative changes to improve Commonwealth-regulated cooperative and mutual enterprises' access to capital and whether 'mutual enterprise' should be explicitly defined in the Corporations Act 2001."Hammond is expected to report to Government by 14 July 2017. Degotardi said the issue "is one of COBA's current top three regulatory reform priorities and a critical focus for the broader co-operative and mutual sector."In March 2016, the Senate Economics References Committee released its report including a recommendation that "APRA set a target date for the outcome of discussions with the co-operative and mutuals sector on issues of capital raising and bring those discussions to a timely conclusion."It said: "The committee heard a consistent message from contributors that a cultural change is required in the financial trading and regulatory sectors in order to take full advantage of the co-operative model."The committee said one of its central concerns was the availability of finance to smaller co-operatives that could not raise capital through retained earnings of debt financing.It said discussion with APRA should include an analysis of the recognition of "hybrid" entities, which combine elements of all the various types of co-operatives.