John Hurrell, Airmic chief executive on what risk managers need to do to raise the profile of risk at board level

 

The campaign to raise the profile of risk in the boardroom is making headway but c-suite executives need further support from risk managers

The campaign to raise the profile of risk in the boardroom is making headway but C-suite executives need further support from risk managers.

John Hurrell, Airmic chief executive, said: “Risk is going up the board agenda, so the profile of risk is actually increasing. However, boards are quite challenged on knowing exactly what that means. They understand the Financial Reporting Council’s (FRC) code and they are aware of their obligations [when it comes to risk management] but boards are taking many different ways to address [the FRC code]. There is a vacuum and Airmic members can step up to it.”

On insurance, Hurrell explained that premiums have reduced, resulting in the topic of insurance slipping down the boardroom agenda, “proportionate to how premiums are going down”.

He argues that boards are more concerned about cost rather than insurance efficacy and urges risk managers “to raise some of these issues to the board, particularly in getting the board to accept, that for increased levels of [contract] certainty, they may have to pay more.”

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