Big wheel keeps on turning

Ben Norris spoke with Ferma’s president Charlotte Hedemark and CEO Typhaine Beaupérin about what the federation has been up to on behalf of members over the last year and what will be on the agenda for 2025.

What has been the key focus for Ferma over the past year? And what will be the big areas of focus in the year ahead?

Charlotte Hedemark: In many ways, the key focus for Ferma over the last 12 months is encapsulated by our slogan – Connect, Influence, Empower.

It is essential that Ferma continues not only to strengthen its relationship with the insurance sector, but also to expand its influence by seeking partnerships with other industries and markets to develop opportunities to enhance Ferma’s advocacy role on behalf of its members.

In addition, we continue to develop relationships with key EU policymakers while working closely with important stakeholders such as Eiopa – the European supervisory authority for insurance and occupational pensions, ecoDa – the voice of boards of directors, and ECIIA – the European body of Internal Audit institutes, to amplify the influence of the risk management community at the EU level.

Ferma has also been working to strengthen its collaboration with national risk management associations, by conducting more one-to-one sessions to share our valuable resource of knowledge and expertise across our membership. We are also committed to providing advocacy training to national associations, to boost their understanding of the operations and policy making of EU institutions.

During the last 12 months, Ferma has also established two new committees. The Ferma Foresight Committee was set up to support the Ferma board in an advisory capacity, by sharing insights on emerging trends and relevant topics, as well as identifying key topics for upcoming events and for areas of further study. The committee will play a key role in driving our content and expertise workflow, to inform both the agenda for key events as well as discussions among Ferma’s various committees and working groups.

Secondly, we launched the Enterprise Risk Management Committee with the aim of supporting risk managers by providing knowledge, tools and resources relating to strategic risk management, across the areas of governance, capabilities and communication. Working groups have now been set up to focus on these three pillars with clear deliverables set and timelines put in place to ensure that the committee meets its objectives.

The last 12 months also saw the launch of the first Global Risk Manager survey, in which we expanded the geographical remit of our well-established survey beyond Europe to include risk associations from the US, Latin America, the Asia-Pacific region and Africa. At the Ferma Forum, we will release the comprehensive findings of this study, conducted in partnership with PwC France, which will provide a detailed insight into how the profession is evolving, where risk priorities are focused and what are the challenges that need to be addressed.

Alongside this, Ferma has continued to expand its membership, with the recent addition of the Lithuanian Risk Management Association bringing our total membership to 23 national associations across 22 European countries.

We want to empower risk managers in their roles, enabling them to emphasise the value of their profession through providing insights on the latest risk trends and developments. In amplifying their voices, we aim to empower them to become risk leaders in their own organisations and to share risk insights with their national associations, the wider risk management community, EU institutions and other stakeholders.

Typhaine Beaupérin: Ferma has a clearly defined role as the singular and widely recognised voice of the European risk management community, and our work continues to centre on demonstrating the intrinsic value of the profession and raising its profile.

We continue to act as a “strategic radar” for the risk management community, keeping national associations and their members informed about major developments affecting the profession, as well as providing a rallying point for the membership in representations to national and EU bodies.

To be fully effective in that role, we are striving to boost dialogue with individual associations to ensure that Ferma is constantly evolving, responding to our membership’s needs and playing our part to the full as a representative body and a valuable knowledge resource for the risk management sector.

A central plank of our advocacy remit is our focus on key subject areas in which Ferma will push for the integration of more risk-based approaches into core pieces of European legislation: digitalisation, sustainability, risk transfer and enterprise risk management. Our advocacy committees have achieved significant success across these areas.

One example of how Ferma and the wider risk management community is successfully delivering regulatory change is the introduction of the new category of “small and non-complex undertaking” into the Solvency II framework, which will help to deliver greater proportionality, especially for captive insurance companies. Ferma’s Captive Committee has been at the forefront of dialogue at the EU level and has played a key role in introducing greater proportionality for captives under Solvency II.

Recently, we have also launched a series of Policy Notes addressing key regulatory developments at EU level, with the first document providing guidance on reporting requirements under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and highlighting high-level areas where risk managers can have strategic involvement.

Ferma, in conjunction with WTW, also produced a first-of-its-kind study – Cyber Reporting Stack. It provides cyber guidance to risk managers on reporting requirements across multiple key regulations, while also calling upon the EU to simplify reporting requirements and addressing key insurance­related challenges.

Such publications are a key element of Ferma’s thought leadership role, and our ongoing mission to demonstrate the value of the federation. We will continue to work to heighten awareness of emerging threats, to share best practice and to produce a greater volume of webinars, reports, guides and other publications.

This will also include work to reinforce the level of professionalism in the industry through the Rimap certification process, while creating new pathways to encourage the flow of fresh talent into the sector.

As mentioned, Ferma has established both its strategic priorities for 2024/25 and published its manifesto outlining those priority areas for EU policymakers. Moving forward, we will continue to focus our efforts on activities that help to deliver against our objective across these critical areas, while providing continuous support and guidance to risk managers across Europe.

And what is Ferma specifically focusing on at EU level?

Typhaine Beaupérin: We have published our Policy Manifesto 2024-29, which aims to help make Europe “risk-ready for a brighter future”. The manifesto presents policymakers in the EU institutions with four priorities for the next institutional mandate and outlines how the federation can contribute towards these aims.

Firstly, the EU needs to explore ways to simplify the existing regulatory environment. While we acknowledge that appropriate and effective legislation is essential, the introduction of a significant number of new regulations in the EU, with more in the pipeline, is making the reporting burden too onerous for organisations. Ferma believes that policymakers should take steps to simplify reporting requirements by focusing on critical information only and though providing more effective guidance on the reporting process.

Ferma is also calling for greater support to manage the net-zero transition, which is a huge undertaking for companies. It is crucial that risk managers have a central role in this shift if companies are to achieve their transition goals. Ferma has therefore lobbied for the creation of an expert group on climate protection gaps to support the process, while also calling on the insurance industry to provide more coverage solutions to help companies on their journey to net zero.

Another key priority is to make the EU more cybersecure and resilient, amid a rapidly evolving digital environment. In addition to a greater focus on cybercrime prevention and risk management, the risk and insurance sector and relevant EU bodies need to improve how we quantify cyber risk, develop more consistent cybersecurity standards, and make necessary amendments to the EU Cyber Security Strategy. Ferma has also proposed that stakeholders should explore the need for a European cyber reinsurance pool.

Finally, Ferma is urging policymakers to take steps to bolster the EU’s preparedness and crisis response capabilities. Prioritising risk management is central to efforts to boost EU resilience, and Ferma has called for the appointment of an executive risk officer within the European Commission in a letter to President Ursula von der Leyen. Ferma has also stressed the importance of developing more tools, funding and guidelines to support enhanced preparedness, and stated our belief that the federation must play a more prominent role in discussions on the issue of preparedness.

Charlotte, how have you enjoyed your first year as president of Ferma and what’s on your agenda in the next 12 months?

Charlotte Hedemark: My first year as president of Ferma has been very busy, but equally very rewarding and productive.

Taking on the presidency of the federation has happened at a critical time in the evolution of the risk management function, as we are seeing the role evolve to become a more influential and strategic function within the corporate hierarchy of organisations.

My appointment also marked the launch of the federation’s strategic priorities for 2024 and beyond, and very much a large part of my role has been working with my fellow board members and the Ferma executive team to explore ways in which we can deliver against those.

A key aim, for example, is to capitalise on opportunities to expand our advocacy capabilities. Part of this has been exploring ways to work more closely with other professional and sector organisations in the EU, work closer with EU institutions and encourage greater participation by national risk management associations in activities at the European level.

Allied to this, we have been exploring ways to strengthen Ferma’s role as a leading voice in the risk management community, using that voice to emphasise the value the profession brings to a broad range of industries and business sectors, as well as public sector and third sector organisations.

Another priority under my presidency is to make the federation more agile and dynamic. To that end, we have embarked on several key activities in recent months to improve how we work with, and on behalf of, our members.

This first year has also marked the next institutional mandate (2024-2029) of the EU Institutions and Ferma published its policy manifesto, Making Europe risk-ready for a brighter future, which lays out what we hope will prove to be priorities for EU policymakers during that period.

We have set the foundations for our advocacy work over the next two to five years. The manifesto addresses the need for the EU to tackle key challenges including increasing regulatory complexity, the net-zero transition insurance gap, the evolving global cyber threat and crisis preparedness in Europe.

Looking to the next year, my focus will inevitably be on maintaining Ferma’s momentum on all of these fronts, in terms of continually promoting and pushing our European agenda while also ensuring we continue to deliver on the fundamental strategic priorities for the federation.

However, in the nearer term, much of my time has been spent working with the fantastic team here at Ferma and the incredible national risk associations that we represent to ensure that the Ferma Forum in Madrid, which also celebrates the 50th anniversary of the federation, proves to be an amazing success.

It is a great opportunity to highlight our continuing role as a guiding force for the risk management profession, advocating for best practice and helping to shape policy at EU level. We also hope that it will help emphasise Ferma’s leadership role at a time of significant uncertainty for the business and risk community, against a rapidly evolving risk landscape, rising geopolitical tensions and a period of major transformation.

While the last 12 months have been incredibly productive and fulfilling, there is clearly much more to be done. As president, I will continue to dedicate my time and energy to ensuring we are able to deliver on the range of goals we have set.