AMRAE has published the third edition of its  Barometre of the Risk Manager (in French) in association with Deloitte. The Baromètre is intended to create a benchmarking tool for enterprises to position themselves in relation to the practices observed among businesses generally.

The specific focus of this report is the risk manager, and not risk management. In this way, AMRAE creates more understanding of the activities of risk managers.

A total of 116 risk managers participated in the survey. The main findings from their responses are these:

Job description
There are three principle categories among the risk managers surveyed: 42 per cent deal primarily with insurance and loss prevention; 39 percent combine these responsibilities with enterprise risk management (ERM) and 19 per cent are dedicated to ERM. The proportion with a joint role has risen since 2011.

Most risk managers covered by the study report to the finance function if they deal with insurance and loss prevention only or with insurance and loss prevention combined with ERM (35 percent and 44 per cent respectively).

There is also a strong connection between insurance and loss prevention and the legal function. Risk managers whose roles are exclusively ERM are, however, usually attached to senior management or finance.

Industrial, political, environmental and fraud risks are the most usual areas of oversight.

Corporate activity
The participation of the risk managers in committees has been growing since 2011, notably in the operational risk committee and the audit committee. The comparisons for the operational risk committee were 36 per cent in 2013 versus 26 per cent in 2011, and for the audit committee 43 per cent in 2013 compared to 33 per cent in 2011. Nine per cent are members of the strategic committee.

Relationships with other risk functions are essentially those of partnership. Previous tensions between risk management, internal audit and internal control appear to have relaxed with less than 5 per cent now saying they are in competition.

At the same time, it appears that there is a blurring of the distinction between risk management and internal audit and internal control.

Personal qualities
The function of risk manager appears to require a certain maturity: 81 percent are more than 40 years old compared to 77 per cent in 2011.

Men remain much in the majority, but there has been a slight rise in the proportion of women in the profession: 72 per cent men in 2013 versus 77 per cent in 2011.

Compared to 2011, it is possible to see among the perceived or desired attributes for a risk manager, a strong tendency toward project management as a technical skill and the appearance of ethics as a personal quality.

Money
As already stated in 2011, excluding variable payments, the risk manager receives a gross remuneration in the range of €101 000 -120 000 per year.

Age is one of the classic elements in the determination of remuneration, and thus, it is also a mark of the level of experience of the risk manager. The questionnaire made it possible to identify certain other factors which can affect remuneration, such as position in the corporate hierarchy, method of recruitment and size of the business.

Career development
Despite the crisis, the risk managers surveyed see their roles developing positively or at least in a neutral fashion in the near future. When asked how they see their careers evolving, 21 per cent said they expect it will be within the compliance function. However, 19 per cent saw themselves within audit and internal control, a significant change from 2011 when the number was only 3 per cent. The majority, however, replied ‘other’ functions.

The full Barometer of the Risk Manager is available in French from AMRAE at: Barometre of the Risk Manager

If you wish to read the 5th edition of risk management information systems in English, please visit AMRAE’s website at Risk Management Information System

Panorama RMIS AMRAE