Chairman Nick Chown told delegates yesterday that the project, known as Leonardo, will focus on spreading risk management knowledge throughout Europe with a particular focus on SMEs.
The training will centre largely on long distance learning with tuition based around the risk management standard developed by AIRMIC, ALARM and IRM. Other participants in the Leonardo project are IRM, FERMA, the French, German and Italian associations, the University of Verona and the Bordeaux Business School.
Moving on to the "vexing" subject of FSA regulation, in his opening speech Chown said that he believed that all other EU countries were exempting their risk and insurance managers. Although AIRMIC and the London Brokers Market Committee had approached the Treasury nine weeks ago, there had been no formal response on exemption despite the fact that both the Treasury and the FSA have made it clear that it was not in the public interest to regulate risk managers.
"It appears that the FSA and the Treasury do not understand their own rules," commented Chown. "This lack of clarity is wasting time and costing businesses a lot of money in legal fees. And if we are to be regulated, it will make the UK less efficient and a less attractive place to do business." He added that AIRMIC has potential solutions.
