Over sixty delegates attended the IRM relaunch of its International Certificate in Financial Services Risk Management in London recently.
The new qualification has been updated to reflect changes in the regulatory environment including Basel III and Solvency II and is designed to be applicable to all those working in financial services who have risk in their remit.
In a presentation at the event, Vicky Gray of Barclays Risk Academy (pictured), which has 550 staff registered as a group scheme with the IRM, explained the importance of having qualified staff. She said Barclays would be putting 60 learners through the new qualification and a further eight on an apprenticeship as part of the Barclays Risk Passport scheme.
Gray said that the company’s Risk Academy had used innovative learning platforms combining desk, home and mobile options, and had become an important part of the way the business engaged with risk learning.
“It’s important to broaden people’s interests and knowledge in the bigger agenda, rather than solely focusing on what they need for their job today,” she said. Partnering with IRM was an important part of that process, she added.
The IRM’s certificate is designed to help people understand and deal with recent changes to the financial services risk landscape, said IRM’s Socrates Coudounaris, who has overseen the changes to the qualification.
“The post-crash environment has seen regulators, investors and business partners make increasing demands on financial services organisations to demonstrate that they have top-class risk management in place at an integrated, enterprise level,” he said. “We have revised our syllabus by placing a sharp focus on the importance of strategy, culture, behaviour and competence in relation to risk.”
Simona Fionda, Head of Risk at the Financial Services Compensation Scheme, speaking at the event, said it was crucial for risk managers to combine strong technical skills with an ability to think differently and learn through their own experiences.
She said it had been useful taking the IRM International Certificate
in Enterprise Risk Management and to combine that with trying new things out through gamification, scenario planning and applying new techniques to existing problems.
Read more about the International Certificate in Financial Services Risk Management.
