Risk and Finance Manager Survey 2011 - US-flavoured but EU-useful

Not useful in its entirety due to the specific target of the detailed content (addressing risk using external assistance) and its US-centric focus, this survey from Towers Watson just released contained a couple of remarkable stats from its 164 respondents;

• Only just over half employ actuarial consultancies based on their technical skills/resources!
• Just over half had an ERM process in place, but under half had a formal process for determining risk appetite/tolerance/limits - how these numbers cannot match up is beyond me, unless there are some pretty sketchy excuses for ERM programmes out there!
• Almost half of those without ERM reasoned this with "no-one has been able to articulate the value"
• Of those with a programme in place, over 80% have assigned ownership of key risks, and two-thirds have regular reporting to boards on the subject
• A participation rate of 2% of those invited (alkmost 10,000) - not exactly a hot topic then!

Seems to be a real divergence in approach stateside, perhaps a side-effect of not having to worry about Solvency II, and more the rigours of Dodd-Frank etc, which I guess are more of a compliance worry.

The messages on communicating value of ERM are however quite easy for EU risk functions to deliver now - it is the cost of staying open in Jan 2013...