July 2022 E-Newsletter

A Message from our Executive Director

Welcome to the July E-Newsletter, The next few months will see the re-introduction of face to face events. We look forward to catching up with colleagues after a long face to face event hiatus due to COVID-19. We welcome former Treasurer Joe Hockey as a guest speaker at this month’s face-to-face event. At “The Year of Uncertainty” event, Mr Hockey will discuss topics such as uncertainty surrounding the conflict in Ukraine, the global financial and political situation, and how Australia should respond in terms of market regulation, budget and monetary policy. Limited face to face places are available for this event, so register below now. Limited face to face places are available for this event, so register now. This month we shine the spotlight on Steve O’Reilly, GM Risk Management, Group Technology, ANZ and Interbank Technology Risk Forum Chair. Steve has been an active contributor to our Forums since 2019. FOLLOW RMA AUSTRALIA on LinkedIn to stay up to date with the latest industry, event and COVID-19 updates. Richard Gilbert Executive Director

 

Spotlight on: Steve O’Reilly, Interbank Technology Risk Forum Chair

This month, we spotlight Steve O’Reilly, GM Risk Management, Group Technology, ANZ and Chair of RMA Australia Interbank Technology Risk Forum. We caught up with Steve and asked him about the role of the forums and challenges facing risk professionals in our industry.

What is the main purpose of the Interbank Technology Risk Forum?

That’s a really good question and one which we debated ourselves at our last forum. Essentially, it should be around generating thought leadership and driving the discipline of risk management forward in technology. In my experience, forums spend a good deal time on governance and compliance issues, which of course are vital, but we do so sometimes at the expense of spending time understanding where a high-performing risk function can add greater value. In Technology Risk’s case, in the nuts and bolts of legacy technology, transformation programs, including Cloud, digitisation and the design and deployment of intelligent solutions.

What are the 2 primary tasks of your role as Chair, Risk Management Association Australia, Interbank Technology Risk Forum?

1. To provide an interesting and thought-provoking agenda

2. More importantly, to moderate discussions towards useful conclusions

How long have you been involved in RMA Australia’s Forums?

Since I returned to work in Australia in early 2019. I initially attended as a stand-in but was (unintentionally) noisy enough to take over as chair!

What have been some of the biggest changes you have seen in the Forums during your time with RMA Australia?

First, of course COVID precluded personal attendance and fairly immediately had a deleterious effect on remote attendance, which was also affected as members dealt with competing priorities and were becoming increasingly fatigued by video meetings. We are seeing attendances pick-up again now.

Second, post – COVID, we are in the midst of our own transformation from “news and views” to becoming more of a debating chamber, where hopefully our Technology Risk Forum will start to challenge accepted views and received thinking.

In your opinion, what are the biggest challenges facing Risk professionals in our industry?

Not sure how we overcome it, but a big challenge is the tension between Non-Exec Directors and their liabilities, the CEO and corporate performance and risk managers trying to get the job done in the face of increasing regulatory obligations (and in the case of technology risk specifically, regulatory lag).

What are RMA Australia’s biggest challenges in 2022?

Back to my earlier answer on received thinking…. it seems to me that ‘rinse and repeat’ lies at the heart of our problem in managing risk. Most weekend golfers spend their Saturdays practising their mistakes, hoping for a different result from repeating fundamentally the same actions. This might be controversial, but I think we have too many high handicap risk managers who do the same. Perhaps the RMA’s biggest challenge is understanding how to foster higher performance in risk management as a discipline.

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Upcoming events

AUGUST

FACE TO FACE AND STREAMED EVENT I Wednesday 10 August I 4.00 – 5.00pm I “The Year of Uncertainty” with guest speaker, the Hon Joe Hockey I Hosted by KPMG I Sydney and Melbourne

FACE TO FACE EVENT I Wednesday 30 August I 4.00 – 5.00pm I The role of risk in protecting customers and communities I Hosted by CBA I Sydney

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