Bankinter Spain, KPMG Spain, KPMG Kenya, Harambee and the Strathmore University Risk Management Centre organized the first Africa Risk Management Master Class that was held on July 29 – 31, 2019. This was a forum where best practices transforming risk management in the digital era were discussed and especially with respect to Africa.

The proceeds of the training will go towards supporting the scholarship fund for the Macheo Achievement Programme, an after-school educational support programme for students drawn from Nairobi Schools in slums.

Digital is the new normal. It has already transformed industries such as media, transportation, and retail and is now sweeping through financial institutions. But when it comes to a financial institution’s risk function, unique challenges and opportunities accompany digitization. Global CEOs and CROs tend to be cautious when considering the very idea of a digital risk transformation, wondering just how far they can automate crucial processes and rely on automated decisions.

Impact of Digitization

As a consequence, numerous questions have arisen around the impact of digitization on the risk function’s mandate, role, and organization (including the lines of defense); the capabilities, talent, culture, and ways of working required to deliver a digitized risk function; how to embark on a transformation program that digitizes the risk function; and what impact such a transformation would have.

Currently risk management teams remain on a reactive footing with a predominant focus on traditional IT general controls and risk assessment techniques, and are limited by the processes, systems and wider business insight with which they have been equipped.

As technology transformations shift the risk landscape, organisations will need to develop an entirely new approach to digital risk. Understanding the risk areas is critical to identifying and dealing with all the risks that an organisation may be exposed to in a digital environment.

Bankinter, KPMG

The facilitators included Julio Zapatero, Chief Risk Officer, Bankinter, Antonio Bosch, Head of Risk Analysis, David Leahy, Partner and Head of Financial Risk Management, KPMG East Africa and Dr. John Olukuru, Director, Risk Management Centre.

The workshop covered the areas which the banks and insurance companies will consider Risk Management as competition advantage: Fraud and Cyber risk, the Big Data revolution and implications for the financial sector, navigate the new world of IFRS 17 insurance contracts and the regulatory and supervisory landscape in Europe – Banks and insurance.

 

This article was written by Vanessa Murgor. She is a Bachelor of Business Science: Actuarial Science graduate and intern at Risk Management Centre.

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