Onwards and upwards

And there is no sign of let up as the federation sets the agenda for next year with Ferma encouraging members to participate in its affairs. Ferma’s forum in Maastricht has been a big focus for the federation this year but there has been a lot more going on besides. A Ferma working group has continued its examination of a possible pan-European certificate of competence for risk managers. The group will make a progress report to members at the Ferma Forum.hide“We are making good progress and have a meeting scheduled during the forum to move that on. The objective is to find a consensus on the ideal framework. Everyone has an opinion on this and we want to find the common ground upon which we can build,” explained Ms Bindelle. This a complex project and Ferma is keen to take its time to make sure it implements a scheme that is both workable and successful, she added. WIDE CONSULATION To ensure a broad range of opinions are taken into account on how best to move forward, and encourage active membership, Ferma launched a consultation on certification immediately prior to its forum. It will canvas opinion via questionnaires to the risk management forum attendees and to its wider membership by email. At the same time it will also ask what they would like to be covered in next year’s benchmarking survey. “We want members to feel that their voice counts with us and the forum provides a perfect opportunity for this and to develop our plans for certification,” said Ms Bindelle. This year has also seen Ferma hire its first staff European affairs adviser, Julien Bedhouche. His presence is ‘greatly increasing the support that Ferma can give to its members in relation to European Commission and Parliament issues’, said Ms Bindelle. The appointment aims to increase Ferma’s influence in the European corridors of power and its ability to position risk management at the head of the regulatory and decision-making process, she added. Although difficult to show concrete results following the appointment of Mr Bedhouche, in part because the regulatory and parliamentary processes are notoriously slow, Ms Bindelle believes things are working well. “We have organised a few meetings with members in Brussels and with the Commission behind the scenes. So little by little we are making progress and we see more and more interest from members that have a specific expertise to come and join us in the working groups we have to discuss various regulatory developments,” said Ferma’s executive manager. As well as helping to push the risk management agenda this is important because it also allows the EC to meet face to face with people from business, she suggested. “So I really encourage members that have an interest not to hesitate to contact us and give a hand and help formulate positions internally that we are taking on various issues. It is an exciting area for Ferma to be developing,” she added. In addition, Ferma this year held its first joint event with the European law association AIDA Europe. It took place in Paris in June and discussed topical insurance law issues, such as trade embargoes. Ferma has also worked with Harvard Business Review Analytics and insurer Zurich on three research projects covering cyber risks, environmental risk management and risk management leadership. 2013 also saw Ferma change its bylaws to allow more individuals and organisations with a stake in European risk management to join the federation. Until the changes were made at its general assembly on 20 June, membership was limited to those represented by Ferma’s European member national risk management associations. But since then those unable to join a European national risk management association have been able to join up. This includes risk managers from European countries, such as Austria, where there is no national association, as well as those from overseas. There are no geographic restrictions on the location of new members, but individuals wishing to sign up have to manage, or oversee, risk or insurance for their employer. Corporate members will need to have insurable interests in Europe and employ a risk or insurance manager. Insurance, reinsurance and broking firms are excluded. These new members do not have voting rights. However, they will be able to take advantage of Ferma communications, contribute to the development of its positions on key issues and participate in its activities, such as seminars, forums and conferences. Ferma said the changes followed requests from both individuals and companies managing risk in Europe to join the federation. “This move is an attempt to raise awareness for risk managers and companies operating in Europe and also reinforce the risk management community,” said Ms Bindelle. “It is important for Ferma to represent the whole European risk management community and not only the countries in which there is a national risk management association. This increases our position as a stakeholder in European affairs and increases our standing. We can now better speak for the European risk management community as a whole.” Ferma has had a good deal of interest from potential new members following the change to its bylaws and hopes to drive this further during the rest of this year and into the next. Even before a single delegate reached Maastricht for its forum, Ferma was busy planning for 2014. It is a particularly important year for the federation that will celebrate its 40th anniversary. A key focus will be its Seminar, the smaller sister of its biennial Forum, that will be held in Brussels. “On that occasion we want to show our members how we have been successful and active in supporting their profession within the European framework. So we thought it would be good to bring them close to where that is going on in Brussels,” explained Ms Bindelle. The 2014 Ferma Risk Management Benchmarking Survey, in its 7th edition, will be published at the event and will be a big project next year for the federation. Ferma is encouraging members to let it know what topics would be of interest. MEMBER INPUT “We have a lot of new areas that we would like to explore and the aim is to be more practical with more quantitative information in areas such as risk management salaries, cost of insurance and loss records with a focus on risk management trends. So in general, and at this year’s forum, we are trying to ask our members what they want to know more about. “We are implementing a working group on the survey containing a member from each national association to help this process. It is a unique benchmarking survey because we ask our members what they, and also their national associations, want,” said Ms Bindelle. Next year will also see Ferma continue its lobbying efforts and press ahead with its risk manager certification plans. Again membership participation is being actively encouraged. “What has changed is that we are increasingly active in giving the risk management profession a voice at EU level but also on issues such as certification. We want them to be involved, reactive and participatory. We are trying to build strong links with members so they can let us know what they want Ferma to focus upon," said Ms Bindelle. In order to further develop Ferma’s offering, Ms Bindelle plans to continue to make the most of her newly acquired position on the board of the European Society of Association Executives. “One part of that is to make Ferma a more professional association to build on work we have been doing over the past few years. My involvement helps us to benchmark our own activities and structure against our association peers,” said Ms Bindelle.

Onwards and upwards

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