The FERMA Board has approved 14 strategic actions for 2015 and ensured that they are aligned with FERMA’s strategic objectives: to be a significant stakeholder at EU level, to coordinate and support the development of risk management, and to be sustainable.

Europe: We will continue to monitor developments affecting risk managers and position ourselves on major regulatory issues. These are the regulatory issues on top of the risk managers’ agenda according to the 2014 FERMA European Risk and Insurance Survey.

• Solvency II: 2015 is the last year of preparation before the entry into force of the Solvency II regime for the insurance sector on 1 January 2016. Captives benefit from a simplified treatment, but the implementing measures define captives in a restrictive manner. FERMA will follow the European Commission’s work on the Level 2 implementing measures and monitor the Solvency II equivalence assessment for non-European captive domiciles.
• Environmental Liability Directive (ELD): Our goal is to ensure that the revision of the ELD planned for 2015 takes into account FERMA’s position against mandatory financial security, the extension of strict liability to all operators and the addition of new damages under the ELD regime. We will follow the Commission’s work on the effectiveness, scope and exceptions to the ELD and continue to be part of the ELD task force of Insurance Europe. In addition, we envisage delivering EU funded training in member associations.
• Directive on Non-Financial Reporting (NFR): Following the recent adoption of the new directive, the European Commission will develop some specific guidelines within the next two years on non-financial reporting elements, such as environmental risks, social and employee matters, anti-corruption and bribery policies. FERMA’s joint working group with the internal auditors through the European Confederation of Institutes of Internal Auditing (ECIIA) will keep working in 2015 to develop a consistent message to the European Commission to ensure that reporting is efficient and meaningful.
• Regulation on information and data protection: We continue to follow developments associated with confidentiality, data protection, cyber risk management, and associated insurance and risk financing solutions. We will monitor the future impact of mandatory notification and reporting for cyber incidents proposed in the Directive on Network and Information Security. We will keep the European Commission up to date with information on the cyber insurance market from the corporate buyer’s perspective and the feasibility of standards regarding cybersecurity.
• Insurance Block Exemption Regulation (IBER): The Commission launched the consultation in August 2014 to begin the assessment of the IBER and determine whether the claimed benefits of insurance pooling still justify the special treatment they receive from EU competition authorities. FERMA will express its views in the consultation to ensure the renewal of the IBER in 2017.

Certification of Risk Managers: With this initiative, we continue to promote professional risk management professional development with the objective of providing a framework reference on risk management education and certification of risk and insurance managers from 2015.

FERMA Risk Management Forum 2015: The next conference will take place in Venice from 4-7 October, and aims at gathering 2000 delegates. Our objective is to deliver a high quality event that attracts even more risk managers than before.

FERMA Seminar 2016 and European Risk and Insurance Survey: Later in 2015, we will launch the team which will conduct FERMA’s European Risk and Insurance Survey 2016. We are already working on the next 2016 FERMA Seminar for risk managers, to be held in Malta, where we will present the results of this survey.

Duty of Care Guidance: European organisations’ duty of care applies to workers on cross-border assignments. With the International SOS Foundation, we plan to issue a white paper on “Safety, health and security risks management for work-related international travel and assignments – The European risk managers’ perspective”.

Corporate Governance : A joint guidance prepared by EcoDa, AIG and FERMA will bring the expertise of the three participants (board members, insurers and risk managers) to the issue and practice of risk committees within companies. It will focus on the dialogue between risk managers and board members to better position the risk management profession at board level.

Diversity: This project aims at increasing diversity in the risk management community through activities such as the development of an international women’s network and the creation of opportunities for networking and mentoring.

Business Model: In 2015, we will rework the business model to ensure future financial sustainability and deliver value on the initiatives in the coming years.
Marketing and Communications: Our marketing and communications programme continues to support our strategic objectives. In 2015, we also aim at aligning our marketing and communications with those of our national association members through increased coordination of our initiatives.