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2005 Events

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER - Christmas Cocktails

RMA Australia held special Christmas Cocktail Presentations for the majority of its members located in Sydney and Melbourne.

The Sydney presentation was held at the Westin Hotel's Heritage Ballroom on Thursday 24 November. Over a hundred members turned up to enjoy the evening's festivities and hear keynote speaker Mr Ralph Norris, the new Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.

Ralph Norris, delivered a very entertaining presentation in which he considered the role of a CEO as a Risk Manager.

He compared his former role as CEO of Air New Zealand with his current role. In both positions, risk is central to the business and the skill of the CEO is about successfully managing risk than seeking to avoid it altogether.

Ralph focussed on the absolute importance of listening to the customer. To be effective as a CEO aside from the ability to really listen to customers, it is necessary to have accurate information, the right people in the right roles and the right culture. Ralph liberally spattered his presentation with quotations from such diverse sources as Machiavelli, Nehru (first Prime Minister of a United India) and Lee Iacocca (Former President of Ford and Chrysler).

Attendees enjoyed a really powerful presentation and were able to put incisive questions to Ralph in what was a fitting close to the rma year in Sydney.

Like the Sydney event, the rma's Melbourne Christmas presentation offered members a thoroughly informative and entertaining function. Held on Thursday 1 December in the heart of the city at Federation Square?s Feddish Restaurant & Bar, the venue provided a spectacular view of the Yarra River on a perfect Melbourne evening.

Melbourne members were fortunate to have as their guest speaker, all the way from Philadelphia, Nicholas Hayes, Director Global Financial Institutions and Market Risk for the RMA.

Mr Hayes provided an enlightening presentation on Economic Capital, which outlined the key findings from surveys and forums involving representatives from some of America's most respected financial institutions, on finding common ground between analysts, regulators and financial markets Risk Officers on 'The Language of Risk'.

Following the presentation Mr Hayes and members enjoyed cocktails and canap's, while also being entertained by a caricature artist, Tony Bramwell.

Both the Sydney and Melbourne events where the master of ceremonies was rma AUSTRALIA Chairman, Mick Leonard, provided an overview of the events, training and initiatives being undertaken by the rma AUSTRALIA. In the spirit of Christmas, Charity Raffles were run at both events to raise money for Salvation Army local and overseas relief projects, as were chosen by the guest speakers.

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OCTOBER/NOVEMBER - Reputation Risk Luncheon Discussions

For the bi-monthly membership, meeting in both Melbourne and Sydney it was decided to try a slightly different format and the Association hosted its first luncheon meetings.

The topic selected was 'Reputation Risk' and we were fortunate to have as our keynote participants Iain Thompson of Corporate Governance International and John Van Geldermalsen of The St. James Ethics Centre. Mike Codling of Price Waterhouse Coopers who is also Vice-Chairman of rma AUSTRALIA acted as Chairman and Guy Harding of Commonwealth Bank of Australia and Quentin Digby of Freehills joined as panellists for what proved to be an interesting and lively discussion period after lunch.

The agenda had Iain and John presenting introductory remarks on the topic including points of view taken from rather different perspectives of the issue. These included both contemporary and historical examples of the corporate importance of reputation risk as well as some rather more philosophical discussion of its relevance within the context of modern business practice.

These remarks were followed by lunch and active discussion amongst the various tables of the 50 members attending. Questions from the floor followed directed to our panel with a very free flow of opinions and debate well suited to the topic.

Typical of the broad range of rma membership the audience was quite diverse with a good level of participation and varying views. Comments after the meeting were overwhelmingly positive encouraging consideration of further breakfast and luncheon meetings in the coming year and a continuation of panel discussions, which appear to be well received.

We are particularly grateful to all of the participants and especially our special guest speakers and panellists Iain Thompson, John Van Geldermalsen and Quentin Digby. Thanks as always to Mike Codling and Guy Harding for their ongoing active support of rma functions and activities.

AUGUST - Market Risk in Asset & Liability Management for Banks

In August 2005, rma ran seminars in Sydney and Melbourne on the topic of Market Risk in Banks. And for the first time, on 4 November 2005, rma AUSTRALIA delivered a bi-monthly event in Queensland when the seminar was presented for Brisbane-based members of the Association.

Market Risk is an important element of total risk management, not always well understood by lending officers and risk managers who work with credit and operating risk. The forums explained the key business issues behind market risk, examined risk in non-traded as well as traded instruments, and described the control processes and reporting that banks use to manage the full spectrum of market risk. Presentations covered asset & liability balance sheet risk, managing liquidity and duration of funding, diversifying funding sources, and transfer pricing between treasury and front line business units. At a more technical level, speakers assessed strengths and weaknesses of Value at Risk (VaR) methodologies as a tool for measuring market risk and controlling exposure to volatility in financial instrument rates and prices.

In Sydney, the main speaker was Marten Touw, Group Treasurer of CBA. Michael Codling (Partner PwC and Vice Chairman rma) chaired a spirited discussion with a panel of market risk practitioners including Mark Putnam of Westpac and Will Pappas of St George.

In Melbourne, principal speakers were ANZ Market Risk executives Lawrence Abbey (non-traded risk) and Krishnan Rangaswamy (traded risk). Simon Gray (Partner PwC) co-ordinated the open forum discussion with the help of Ellis Bugg of NAB.

On Friday 4 November 2005 the rma burst onto the Brisbane scene with more than 60 people turning out to hear from guest speaker Marten Touw, Group Treasurer and Executive General Manager, Commonwealth Bank and a panel of experts including Byron Fuller of Suncorp and Len Stone of Bank of Queensland. The topic presented was the rather technical subject of Market Risk in Asset & Liability Management for Banks. This, and the clash of the event with the second day of the cricket test at the Gabba, did not deter attendance or a healthy question and answer session moderated by Tim Allman of PricewaterhouseCoopers that followed Marten's presentation.

From this very enthusiastic first meeting in Brisbane the rma will expand its seminar offerings into 2006. Keep your eyes peeled for the next Brisbane event!

JUNE - Corporate Governance

Events were held in Sydney and Melbourne focusing on Corporate Governance issues relevant to risk management professionals. In Sydney, the presentations were given by John Cole of the National and Justin O'Farrell from Freehills. In Melbourne Gerry Ellis (former Chairman of BHP Billiton and currently director of ANZ) and Quentin Digby from Freehills presented the topic.

The presentations looked at some of the issues confronting modern day boards of directors in Australia on the Corporate Governance front. Particular attention was paid to the role of non-executive directors, the role of internal audit and the importance of managing these matters from a reputation risk perspective through both appropriate forms and processes as well as substance.