Agers on the up as it celebrates 40th anniversary

Spanish risk management association Agers celebrated its 40th anniversary this year with a growing membership, increasingly dynamic activities and co-hosting the Ferma Forum in Madrid. The biennial Ferma meeting was organised in partnership with Igrea, another Spanish risk management association. It was the culmination of a process to turn Agers into a more assertive voice in the risk management and insurance markets. During that period, the association has gone through changes that have put risk managers in charge of its leadership, in a quest to help Spanish companies adapt to the fast-changing world. In an interview with Commercial Risk, Igrea president Juan Carlos López Porcel noted that there have been plenty of challenges facing risk managers of late, which has given them opportunities to show their value. “We have lived complex years, where it has been possible to verify the structures of risk and insurance programmes at companies with significant claims,” he said. “Risk management policies and strategies have been key to protecting balance sheets, assets, staff members, facilities and even corporate social responsibility, a concept that continues to gain relevance,” he added. It is certainly a different world from 1984, when Agers started its journey as a risk management association. At the time, Spain was just entering the European Union and its business groups were barely present outside of the country’s borders. Today, Spanish companies are global players in sectors such as construction, banking, energy and technology. Risk managers have had to evolve along with their businesses. That was especially true after the financial crisis of the late 2000s and the Covid-19 pandemic. “Those past 40 years have been an important period that brought an invitation to patience and perseverance, and which remind us that significant changes and achievements require time and dedication,” Porcel said. To face the new challenges, Agers has intensified its activities in recent years under Porcel’s leadership. In 2019, the association approved a new statute that changed the composition of its board of directors. Since then, only risk managers have been eligible on the board, although other market players can still be members of the association. Agers has also strengthened its administrative structure, with Alicia Soler acting as executive manager since 2014 and running the organisation for the past ten years. Today, six people work at the Madrid headquarters on a permanent basis. The association has also invested in training and education, offering courses and seminars in addition to its annual conference. Partnerships with institutions like the University of Barcelona and the Nebrija University in Madrid have been established to offer post-graduate courses in risk management. Students can apply for a Ferma’s Rimap certification. Working groups have been created to deal with topics such as technological risks, sustainability and ESG, as well as risks in the public sector. A series of Igrea podcasts and webinars have been hosted to spread knowledge about risk management and related issues among Spanish companies. Several booklets on topics such as cyber risks, D&O and non-financial reporting have been made available to risk professionals, and a magazine, Observatorio de Gerencia de Riesgos, is published twice a year. The effort is translating into higher membership levels, Porcel explained. Currently, after posting 14% growth in 2023, AGERS has 248 members, including 89 risk managers. In its latest annual report, the association claims to have the names of 497 risk managers in its database. “Our activities have shown a continuous and orderly growth, which is what grounds our strategy, taking account of significant technological and procedural changes,” Porcel said. There is no doubt that risk managers have gained relevance in their companies over recent years, but Porcel is clear that the task is not yet complete. It is up to the profession to show that its work is essential and that risk managers should have a chair at strategic meetings, he said. “It is important to integrate the function as a key element of processes from their beginning, and not only when there is a claim,” he said. “Also, to incorporate values, mindsets and behaviour into the profession to strengthen an integral risk management culture.” At the same time, risk managers must show the insurance market the value of their work in mitigating risk, while underwriters have to recognise the quality of risk management programmes. “It is of essence that insurers understand and value both the insurance and risk departments as key partners in this process,” pointed out Porcel. It is in this context that Agers co-hosted the recent Ferma Forum 2024 Madrid. Porcel describes it as an “inflexion point” for the risk function in Spain. It was the second time that Ferma came to Spain, after its 2001 event in Barcelona.

Agers on the up as it celebrates 40th anniversary

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