Welcome to our June 2020 E-News.

With the easing of restrictions, we have seen some sense of normality return to our daily lives. Our workplaces and the way we work however, remain in a continued state of uncertainty.

To adapt to this, we have successfully moved our 2020 events program online for the foreseeable future. We now offer regular LIVE webinars for our members. Topics covered to date include: Taking an Enterprise Wide View of Business Risks, Thriving Through Uncertainty, Risk Leading From the Front and Economic Update.

These webinar events have proven to be an effective vehicle for connectivity and learning despite working remotely. We have also been actively surveying our members regarding the best time to host these webinars to ensure access and availability. Feedback shows that 5 – 1 of our members prefer the current 4 – 5pm timeslot over others. We will therefore continue to deliver our webinar events at this time.

Our most recent Economic Update webinar event with Chris Richardson, proved to one of our premier events to date, with exceptional member feedback.

Our next LIVE webinar event, hosted by EY, is on Wednesday 1st July, 4 – 5pm LIVE on the Future of Stress Testing.

Don’t forget to FOLLOW RMA AUSTRALIA on LinkedIn for the latest industry, event and COVID-19 coronavirus updates.

Richard Gilbert

Executive Director

 

Daniel Ostermeyer has been a long time member and supporter of RMA Australia during his time at Deloitte. We caught up with him before he commences a new role as Associate Director, Regulatory Affairs, Macquarie Bank in July.

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I’ve been working in Deloitte’s Risk Advisory practice for the past 2.5 years, and 15 years at KPMG London/Sydney prior to that.

Most of my career so far has been in an advisory capacity. Whilst this has given me a wide range of opportunities across banking and financial services, I am looking forward to stepping into the direct accountability that my new role at Macquarie will provide. I’ll be in the Regulatory Affairs team – an area that always gives plenty of variety, challenge and intensity!

The achievements I am most proud of are where I’ve seen my contribution result in the greatest positive outcomes for my clients and their customers. For example, whilst working at the UK Financial Services Authority, I coordinated a key report for the UK Government to establish the Asset Protection Scheme – this was the basis for the liquidity injections and capital ownership which ensured RBS and Lloyds Banking Group could continue to operate.

I’m also delighted to have had the opportunity to help my colleagues grow their risk experience and build their careers – it’s great to see them flourish!

I’ve been an active member of RMA Australia since relocating to Sydney in 2012, including organising and running events hosted by Deloitte and KPMG over the years.

RMA events give the invaluable opportunity to grow my network of local risk practitioners. The frequent cadence of events allows me to get up-to-date views on a variety of relevant topics and current industry challenges.

What are some highlights of being involved in RMA events so far in your career?
Last year I organised the RMA’s CRO Forum hosted by Deloitte. It was great to be part of a combined Deloitte/RMA that saw this event be such a success. In the past couple of years I’ve had the opportunity to facilitate some RMA events and to speak as a panelist. I’ve also enjoyed hearing from a range of speakers at RMA events – from major bank CROs to more focused perspectives offered by other risk or behavioural/culture experts.

As risk professionals, we need to be able to collaborate effectively and influence others. COVID-19 has thrown us all in the deep end by requiring us to do this remotely; by and large, we are all making it work. But how will we ensure our impact and influence is effective in the post-COVID world where teams are permanently more dispersed and without such a large proportion being in the office compared with the past? I think we will place greater value on face-to-face communication, but we need to learn to do our jobs effectively without it.

Some risks such as fraud, cyber and data privacy are naturally heightened in a pandemic environment. Others will become more prominent later in the cycle as the current stimulus and forbearance measures take their toll – for example through greater credit losses.

Overall, the risks we are facing now are not new – we are just more skewed toward some than others. Across the industry, we need to ensure we are driving the necessary improvements in how we do things – this is most prominent for management of non-financial risks and closely aligned to APRA’s focus on governance, culture, remuneration and accountability.