Europe, the World and the Future
FERMA Risk Management Forum 2005 & 4th IFRIMA Congress: 'Europe, the World and the Future: Opportunities for Risk Management.'
Lisbon 2-5 October 2005
In October 2005, for the first time, the Federation of the Association of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA) will hold a joint meeting with the International Federation of Risk and Insurance Management Associations (IFRIMA). The FERMA Forum and IFRIMA's 4th Worldwide Congress will be held in parallel in Lisbon from 2-5 October.
Around 1,000 risk managers and insurance practitioners from more than 20 countries attended the last Forum, which took place in Rome in 2003.
The Portuguese risk management association, Associacao Portuguesa de Gestao de Riscos e Seguros (APOGERIS), which is organising the FERMA event, expects to draw a good attendance to Lisbon, especially with the growth of FERMA membership to include Swedish and Russian risk management associations in 2004.
Under the overall theme 'Europe, the World and the Future: Opportunities for Risk Management', FERMA's 2005 forum will address the increasingly complex issues facing risk managers in today's enlarged Europe and in this redefined world. Thierry van Santen, president of FERMA, comments, "In today's business climate, risk management has become a number one priority in most organisations. Business must adapt itself to the new environment. Delocalisation and outsourcing issues, intercultural threats, pressure from stakeholders and new regulations throughout the world are all part of the picture.
"How do you manage risks from Europe when many of your activities will be in Asia, Africa or South America? With these new horizons and frontiers, how efficiently are you mastering your risks and assisting your management?
Do you have the procedures in place to identify and manage the risks?
With the impact of the freedom of services, what are the new risk frontiers in Central Europe, and how should companies address risks in Russia?"
The Forum offers a range of keynote speakers and plenary sessions, a choice of 13 workshops, educational sessions and a large exhibition of more than 60 stands. Following the enthusiasm for the roundtable insurance and brokers issues in Rome, the committee has again scheduled a lively debate with keynote representatives. As well as top level workshops and sessions, the programme will feature interactive risk managers' discussions in the format of brainstorming sessions.
The president of the Forum, Jose Manuel Dias da Fonseca comments: "Looking at the commitments for exhibition and at pre-bookings, we are more than confident that the event will be a great success! Don't miss it!"
Delegates' registration will start when the delegate brochure is available in April 2005, and the information is already on the website: www.ferma-asso.org Please contact Florence Bindelle from FERMA for further information: info@ferma-asso.org Risk management course
Transnational partners developing the European course in risk management, aimed at small and medium sized businesses, have agreed on the structure of the course. The initial module will be free and will be followed by one full day's face-to-face tuition and then six e-learning modules of no more than half an hour. The pilots will be run in France and the UK in the last quarter of 2005, then in Germany and Italy in the first quarter of 2006. The intention is to have the finished product ready for launching from 1 October 2006. The transnational group will set the broad, strategic direction of the project in line with the EU requirements.
Broker remuneration
FERMA representatives met the European Commission and had contacts with the European brokers' association (BIPAR) and the European insurers' association (CEA). The EC agreed to start discussions between the CEA, the BIPAR and FERMA, at European level to agree on a code of conduct and on adequate procedures to guarantee appropriate transparency. The first meetings were due to take place as StrategicRISK went to press.
Many members are working with their national brokers on such projects.
FERMA will bring this work together in order to try to define the most effective tools to be implemented at European level. Needless to say that, with insurer and broker consolidation on one hand and the European Directive on intermediation on the other, the solution to this can only be European.
Environmental liability working group
Pierre Sonigo, group and environmental risk manager - Pechiney/Alcan, is representing FERMA on a working group set up by the Comite European des Assurances (CEA) to discuss the implications of the European Environmental Directive, which entered into force in April 2004.
With the proposal for compulsory insurance for environmental damage only temporarily in abeyance and due for reconsideration by the European Union, the CEA has set up this expert environmental working group. Its main task will be to gather information and practices on the experience of various insurance markets and draw on this research to work out the basis of a possible environmental liability insurance scheme, reflecting, at least in part, the EU directive.
