AGERS (Spain)

On 15 November, AGERS will hold its 28th seminar on the prospects for the annual renewal of insurance contracts. The venue is the Mapfre auditorium in Madrid.

Airmic (United Kingdom)

A survey of Airmic members has overwhelmingly backed the association’s campaign for changes to UK insurance law. The Law Commission, which advises the government on such matters, is in the final stages of a consultation process before drawing up new legislation focussing on commercial insurance.

Airmic supports the overall direction of the commission’s proposed reforms, which would make it more difficult for insurance companies to refuse claims on grounds of non-disclosure as long as the buyer acted honestly and in good faith. The survey found that more than 95% of members agree there should be changes to UK insurance law.

Airmic has also been working over the summer on its latest piece of risk research, to be called Roads to Resilience. The purpose of the study is to investigate companies that have successfully overcome crises, or avoided them altogether, to see if there are common themes. It is being carried out by Cranfield Business School and is the follow-up to Roads to Ruin, which investigated firms that had failed.

AMRAE (France)

Bénédicte Huot de Luze has been appointed as full time CEO of AMRAE. She replaces Gérard Lancner who had filled the role on a part-time basis since July 2011.

Bénédicte Huot de Luze

AMRAE says the appointment of a full time senior executive will help the association develop and further expand its activities.

Bénédicte had been director of AMRAE’s scientific programme. She previously worked at the French arm of KPMG Advisory, where she set up its internal audit and risk management department.

AMRAE has published its 2012 Panorama of Risk Management Information Systems, available for free download in French and English. The association has been carrying out this annual survey since 2008, listing vendors of risk management systems and solutions available on the market.

This survey is conducted directly with vendors in cooperation with Accenture and provides an analysis based on functional and technical criteria. Participation from vendors continues to grow; there were 11 new respondents this year.

Download the English version
Download the French version

ANRA (Italy)

On 27 September, ANRA held a short workshop with the Italian brokers’ association AIBA on the management of digital risks and the available insurance solutions. The venue is Palazzo Mezzanotte, Milan.

Claims, liability and insurance: claims management is the subject of the ANRA workshop taking place on 25-26 October in Milan.

BELRIM (Belgium)

BELRIM held a topical seminar on cyber risks and their management in Brussels on 27 September.
The programme included a presentation on the implications of the European draft directive on cyber breaches and the risk management options; identification, measurement and management, and risk transfer.

“Meet your peers at the border” was the intriguing title of the following item on BELRIM’s calendar, a special event for Benelux. Jointly hosted by BELRIM and the Dutch association NARIM, it took place at van Brasschaat Castle in Flanders on 11 October.

DARIM (Denmark)

As part of its 25th anniversary celebrations, DARIM held a two day conference at Nyborg on 13 and 14 September and invited members of fellow Nordic associations, SWERMA and NORIMA, and FERMA to take part. In total 50 people participated in the event and in the gala dinner on 13 September.

FERMA President Jorge Luzzi was one of the guest speakers, and he thanked Nordic members for their support for FERMA in the shape of their “very active participation at board level”, long standing support for FERMA projects and activities, strong representation and participation in FERMA events, knowledge and expertise, and contacts with national regulatory bodies.

FERMA’s value for Scandinavian risk managers, Jorge told the audience, is as risk management promoter, advocate, network, catalyst, advisor, knowledge centre and European presence. FERMA board member from Denmark, Helle Friberg, spoke of her role and the subjects currently under discussion by the board.

Other topics presented at the conference included natural catastrophes, supply chain risks, business interruption and contingent business interruption, and crisis communications management. Members of the three Scandinavian risk management associations had a joint session to discussion how best to benefit from each other.

DVS (Germany)

DVS set another record when more than 600 risk professionals gathered to take part in its 2012 Symposion in Munich on 4 and 5 September. The programme included a keynote speech by Michael McGavick, CEO of XL Group. He spoke on the need for the insurance industry to adapt to the needs of its commercial clients to cover emerging risks and support new industries or risk losing relevance to large businesses. Indeed, a recurring theme at the conference was the wish by DVS members for more risk transfer products to help manage exposures such as cyber risks, a subject addressed by Jörg Nientiedt, director, corporate audit & consulting division, of Bertelsmann, and reputation damage.

Other topics discussed included the implications for commercial insurance buyers of the new electronic placing platform Inex24, the impact or otherwise on D&O policies of the 2011 German federal court decision on wilful deceit by policyholders and the underestimated risk of industrial espionage presented by consultant Fred Maro.

FinnRiMa (Finland)

FinnRiMa celebrated its 25th anniversary with a seminar and dinner in Helsinki on 16 October.

NORIMA (Norway)

NORIMA will hold a breakfast meeting on 2 November. The theme is to be decided.

PRiM (Luxembourg)

FERMA’s newest member PRiM dedicated the summer edition of its newsletter to insurable risk. It included an interview with FERMA President Jorge Luzzi

POLRISK (Poland)

The 6th POLRISK conference will take place from 19-21 November at the Holiday Inn at Jósefów near Warsaw.

SIRM (Switzerland)

SIRM will hold its annual forum on 6 and 7 November at the Seedamm Plaza Hotel at Pfäffikon with the theme: Loss prevention, a necessary evil or…

SWERMA (Sweden)

SWERMA’s autumn programme of courses includes training in enterprise risk management (ERM), a site visit to one of Europe’s largest energy companies to see ERM in effect and a two day seminar on strategic information.