Government agency Austrade will step up its efforts to make financial services a viable export industry.

The agency has established a team to look at programs that will facilitate the Government's objectives to improve financial service exports from Australia.

The group will be led by financial services national industry manager Peter Osborne.

"Australia's financial services industry includes a highly skilled, multilingual workforce, a respected regulatory regime, globally significant level of funds under management and a strong professional support network," Osborne said.

"This combined with our physical proximity to Asia, makes the industry highly competitive with global and regional players."

Osborne worked previously in Beijing as Australia's senior trade commissioner and minister and was also the country manager for China.

Working in government roles, Osborne has spent 14 years overseas and has been based in Fiji, Taiwan, China and Hong Kong.

Osborne's immediate focus is to make an assessment of the industry's ability to improve its export capacity.

"I have only been in the job for 10 days so I am really trying to assess what we need to do. This includes working with other government agencies including the Treasury and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade," Osborne said.

Osborne will also work with industry bodies including the Investment and Financial Services Association and will meet with fund managers over the next few weeks.

"Our second objective is to look at how we can assist industry with operating in overseas markets," he said.

The push to improve the financial services export industry will also be co-ordinated with Austrade's offices overseas particularly in Asia.