Darim approaches 100th member

The Danish Risk and Insurance Management Association (Darim) is on the verge of a milestone. It currently has 99 members so there is a keen anticipation that a century of risk managers is imminent.

The association recently held its annual members’ seminar where the most pressing issues are debated and discussed. One of the risk managers leading the discussions was Thomas Lau Christensen, head of risk and insurance at Nordic Leisure Travel Group, and vice-president of Darim.

The association is not just a lobbying group to promote the causes of risk managers but a networking club that its members can rely on for advice and knowledge sharing. “We reach out to each other,” says Christensen.

To this end, the association is currently in the process of mapping the respective competencies and specialisms of its members in order to make the networking a more structured process.

The membership is currently divided between those that focus on insurance management and those that have an enterprise risk management (ERM) remit. “Our purpose is to bridge the gap between those two disciplines,” says Christensen.

At the heart of this effort is the different perspective on insurance. Some see it as a risk management, others see it as purely risk transfer. ERM, says Christensen, is an holistic approach. “If a factory burns down, insurance will pay for the construction of a new factory and it may even cover the business interruption but it will not pay out for the fact that you don’t have any customers anymore.

“Therefore, robust business continuity plans are just as essential as having the insurance. ERM is about having a 360-degree understanding of the risk,” says Christensen.

The Darim seminar looked at how to set up an ERM programme, the governance around that and how you get the support and involvement of the board, senior management and the organisation as a whole. “To ensure value creation, it can never become a compliance exercise to satisfy a board protocol. It has to be practical and has to be transparent,” says Christensen.

“Our intention is to promote ERM as what it is, an holistic, transparent and cross-departmental discipline. Hence, to assess a risk it requires the right competencies from various parts of the organisation,” says Christensen.  It is this assessment, done by the organisation and facilitated by the risk manage, that should be communicated to the management and the board, he says.

The seminar also featured some insurers to discuss the benefits of an ERM programme and how that might be reflected in the underwriting process. Greater collaboration with insurers is one of the association’s objectives says Christensen. Since the market hardening, there is a greater appetite for risk-based dialogue between risk managers, insurers and brokers and to establish concrete actions.

“For example, how are insurance carriers going to support us on AI and sustainability? How can we collaborate on contract certainty? We would like more transparency and more standard processes where we agree on a protocol with Danish insurers,” says Christensen.

As a risk manager for an international tour operator, Christensen appreciates the impact of a worsening nat cat environment and how this has affected the ability to get nat cat coverage, especially through an international programme (IP).

For example, he says, it has been difficult to get nat cat coverage for Greek hotels through an IP but it has been possible by going directly to the Greek insurance market where there is more appetite, understanding and capacity for nat cat risks. “We need more transparency from insurers in these areas – what modelling do they use for nat cat and making capacity calls?” says Christensen.

The association has worked on developing a template for broker-client service agreements that can become best practice.” We are willing to share our knowledge because we all have the same problems,” says Christensen.

The other main objective for Darim, says Christensen, is the recruitment of new members and securing a talent pipeline for the next generation of risk managers. “The pipeline is out there and there are more companies in Denmark hiring risk managers,” he says.

“We’ve worked together with Copenhagen Business School to develop a minor in risk management module offered for the first time this semester and we are developing a graduate programme with insurance carriers, brokers and companies. By spending 3-4 months with each party, students get an insight into what it means to be a risk manager,” says Christensen.

“There is not much training specifically for risk managers in Denmark so we feel it is our responsibility to develop these educational tools and then link them to other qualifications like the RIMAP certification offered by Ferma,” he says. “These are exciting steps.”