Risk management (RM)

RM involves considering the risks of the enterprise as a whole, rather than considering individual risks in isolation. This allows the concentration of risk arising from a variety of sources within an enterprise to be appreciated, and for the diversifying effects of risks to be allowed for. This is the holistic approach to risk management and it is fundamental to RM.

As experts in risk, actuaries are natural leaders in RM.  The business world, along with the public sector, faces multiple challenges and greater uncertainty in the current hostile economic environment - it needs to manage its risks better to succeed and to serve all stakeholders well.

We believe that actuaries can develop influential roles in wider risk management, (building on core skills in our traditional areas such as insurance, pensions and investment to help manage other business risks), and that we can expand our horizon of activity to meet the needs of the wider business world and those of the profession’s growing global membership for stimulating and well rewarded jobs.

Actuaries who wish to specialise can:

• obtain the Chartered Enterprise Risk Actuary (CERA) qualification, a globally recognised demonstration of RM expertise. (For further information visit the CERA website)
• study ST9 (Enterprise risk management. Specialist technical), this will provide the successful candidate with an understanding of the key principles underlying the implementation and application of RM within an organisation.

The 'enterprise risk management' category on your membership record:  If your ‘predominant work area’ is RM you can now update this on your membership record (about a fifth of the membership is currently ‘Unknown’ and this might be because this category did not exist previously).   It is item 6 on the My Account page (you will need to scroll down to see it) after you have logged in.