After a cold, grey winter in Europe, the FERMA team of Jorge Luzzi, Pierre Sonigo, Jo Willaert and me were delighted to head to Los Angeles for the annual meeting of the US risk and Insurance Management Society (RIMS) – and the California sunshine. Board member Carl Leeman was with us in his role as president of the International Federation of European Risk Management Associations (IFRIMA). Jorge and I took part in the session on risk management and insurance practices around the world where we presented the findings of the FERMA 2012 Benchmarking Survey. We were joined by former FERMA board member Franck Baron who is now risk and insurance manager with International SOS in Singapore. He is also the first chairman of the new Pan-Asian Risk & Insurance Management Association (PARMIA), which he helped to launch.
Jorge also spoke on the question of admitted insurance in Latin America with former FERMA president Maurizio Castelli, now with XL, and in the bi-lingual session on the experience of enterprise risk management in Latin America. Carl was one of the four risk managers speaking at the joint IFRIMA session,
“Big blue marble”, a forum on global risk management issues.
During several IFRIMA meetings the possibility of a global certification was extensively discussed, and the major associations, including FERMA, have agreed to work on global RM certification initiated by IFRIMA.
In the meantime, members of the FERMA board will receive an update on the latest stage of our certification project from the working party at the general assembly on 20 June. They will then decide on the next stage.
Speaking of the Forum, every two years, FERMA reminds members that coming to the Forum is a great
way to meet key players from the risk and insurance industry in one place.That is multiplied in the case of RIMS which has around 400 exhibitors, a large team from RIMS itself and thousands of delegates. I took
advantage of the opportunity to talk with senior government affairs staff from RIMS so we have a platform for future discussions and networking with others in the industry.
It is also part of FERMA’s strategy to have our voice heard with other stakeholders and EU representatives. During our recent meetings with EU Commission representatives, the International Oil and Gas Producers Association and the mining industry sector we had the opportunity to reinforce FERMA’s position on relevant matters. These include the Environmental Liability Directive, Insurance Mediation Directive 2, coinsurance, and captives.
As I mentioned, the general assembly will take place on 20 June in Brussels. In keeping with the programme we started last year, we will have an outside speaker on European affairs. Our aim is to raise our knowledge of the processes in the EU to a higher level so that it forms the background of our major
decisions. Together with FERMA’s increasing relationships with other stakeholders, now including the
insurance law association AIDA Europe, this will strengthen our ability to represent the interests of our
members.
Florence Bindelle
Executive Manager