FERMA President Jorge Luzzi looked back at FERMA’s accomplishments over the past year and set out his objectives for FERMA this year in his address to the general assembly held on 3 June in Brussels.

Two new members joined FERMA in 2011. They are MARM from Malta and PRiM from Luxembourg. They brought the total number of members to 22 representing 20 different countries. Altogether these associations represent more than 4500 individual members over Europe.

Three new board members were elected in 2011: Helle Friberg from Denmark, Igor Mikhaylov from Russia and Alessandro de Felice from Italy. Arnout van der Veer left the board because of his increased work responsibilities.

Author: Jorge Luzzi

During 2011, FERMA increased its lobbying activities, for example:

We responded to European proposals on corporate governance and risk management, stating that we believe that no more rules are needed but that implementation and robust enforcement of existing EU corporate governance rules on risk management are preferred.

To support this, FERMA and ECIIA joined forces to provide practical advice for senior managers on how to help their companies meet risk management, internal control and internal audit responsibilities under European law. The fruit of this collaboration is Part 2 of the Implementation Guidance on the 8th Company Law Directive.

FERMA called on the Brazilian government to withdraw two new reinsurance regulations that threaten to reduce the capacity for coverage of large commercial risks and increase the cost of insurance.

We called for the inclusion of large risks in the revised European Insurance Mediation Directive (IMD) to incorporate binding standards of transparency for brokers in their relationship with insurance buyers, no matter what size the risks.

We also responded to the consultation document “Towards a Coherent European Approach to Collective Redress”, explaining why we do not believe class actions are in the interest of our members.

I personally met Karel van Hulle, Head of Unit on Insurance and Pensions at the DG Internal Market, and visited the European Parliament to discuss with a representative of Ecofin the actions to be taken on the revision of the IMD.

Naturally, we continue to be active on pending new legislation and current laws and regulations under preparation. In particular, we are following closely developments on the ISO 31000 Standard.
The FERMA Risk management Forum in October in Stockholm was a huge success. With over 1300 participants, it was the biggest ever, and we had our largest ever participation from risk and insurance managers – close to 500.

Our efforts to promote education in risk management continued in 2011. We invited 15 students from European universities to attend the Forum. We organised a competition with ACE for the best thesis on risk management and with the help of Lloyd’s, 30 young professionals are attending training sessions in London over an 18 month period.

Finally, 2011 was also the year of a new communication strategy for FERMA. We now have a new logo, a new website and a revised brochure. We published six newsletters under a new format with more in-depth articles. The feedback we receive is excellent.

Also, we have launched a social media strategy to spread our reach with the new generation of risk managers (but not only). FERMA is now present on Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and SlideShare, and our number of followers is impressive and increasing every month.

Objectives for 2012:

• Build the success of our bi-annual Benchmarking Survey and the Seminar in Versailles in October.
• Continue our lobbying efforts with the EU institutions. I intend to increase the number of contacts with key persons at the Commission, EIOPA, the Parliament and the Council so that FERMA’s points of view are taken into account. I also intend to join forces with other European associations who have the same objectives to share resources and join forces to be more effective.
• Begin development of certification of professional risk managers at a European level. This will reinforce recognition, professionalism, ethics and competence for our profession for the future.
• Tighten the links with FERMA members, to increase our awareness to their concerns and objectives. I intend to visit as many member associations as possible and create occasions to associate them in our discussions, positions and actions.