Artificial intelligence and machine learning are transforming the ways in which financial institutions manage risk. Driven by a proliferation of data and computing power, institutions are harnessing these tools to build predictive models that enhance decision making. Today, firms are using AI and ML to improve risk management by identifying early warning signals to manage credit risk and providing investment managers with capabilities to interpret unstructured ESG data for portfolio management.    In this podcast, Jeff D’Avignon, from FIS Global, leads a conversation with Riyaz Nakhooda, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships at Accern and Justin Chan, Product Director for FIS’ Cross Asset Trading and Risk business. They discuss the machine learning revolution and what it means for the financial services industry, practical applications of new and emerging technologies, potential challenges to adoption, and their outlook for the future.     Justin Chan, Product Director, Cross-Asset Trading & Risk, FIS Global  Jeff D’Avignon, Senior Sales Executive, Cross-Asset Trading & Risk, FIS Global  Riyaz Nakhooda, Vice President of Strategic Partnerships, Accern   

GARP Risk Podcast

Big Data and AI: Impact and Opportunities for the Financial Risk Space 

Over the next two years, driven in part by the economic consequences of COVID-19 and the shift toward work-from-home, financial institutions are expected to pay a lot of attention to credit risk, cybersecurity, ESG, non-financial risks, data management, third-party risk and AI. In this podcast, GARP editorial director Robert Sales discusses these trends and other findings from Deloitte’s recent worldwide risk management survey with J.H. Caldwell - the risk advisory leader for Deloitte’s financial services practice globally. 

Global Risk Management Trends, 2021 and Beyond

Circling back on the issue of cybersecurity after many months of COVID, we speak with Robert H. Rosenzweig, RPLU, a SVP and National Cyber Practice Leader at Risk Strategies on the current environment for cyberthreats, what are the trends/issues firms are facing and implications for risk managers. Topics discussed include: the changing nature of threats, the urgency for firms to build a resilient cybersecurity strategy that incorporates strong data governance and protection, protecting IT infrastructure and systems in the remote work environment, potential financial impacts due to cyber threats and the increased use of cyber insurance to offset risks.   Speaker Bio Robert H. Rosenzweig, RPLU, is a Senior Vice President and the National Cyber Risk Practice Leader at Risk Strategies.  In this role Rob oversees all of the firm’s cyber professionals and works directly with the firm’s clients and prospects on creating comprehensive and customized coverage for their data security, privacy, and errors & omissions exposures. Rob is also responsible for coordinating the firm’s overall cyber strategy nationally.  A published writer and frequent interview subject on cyber liability topics, he also has participated on panels and led seminars on a variety of related topics. Rob currently holds the Cyber COPE Insurance Certification from Chubb & Carnegie Mellon University and a designation as a Registered Professional Liability Underwriter.  Rob received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Government & Economics from Hamilton College.

Has COVID-19 Accelerated Cyberattacks?

Edward Hancox, VP, Certification and Educational Programs and Beth Gould Creller, SVP, Certification and Educational Programs discuss the decision to sunset the Energy Risk Professional (ERP) Certification and how GARP can continue to serve the Energy industry and it’s risk professionals going forward.

Opportunities for Energy Risk Professionals Post-ERP

GARP’s Robert Sales leads a roundtable with Randy Ahluwalia, Managing Director, BNY Mellon, Gokce Ozcan, Partner, Oliver Wyman and Wei Chen, FRM,  Director, Global Risk Consulting , Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions at SAS on bank asset and liability management, including challenges around the aspiration of industry toward “integrated balance sheet management” as well as how COVID-19 and possible future regulation may impact this area.   Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to financial risk and have partnered on this episode of our COVID podcast series. About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS has more than 40 years of experience helping organizations solve their toughest problems. Our unrelenting commitment to innovation enables banks to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. SAS provides an integrated, enterprise-wide risk-management platform for managing risk in an organization, from strategic to reputational, operational, financial or compliance-related risk management. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk.    

Integrated balance sheet management: Why should I put all my eggs in one basket

From Respond to Re-imagine – PART 2: Charting the journey forward for banking and risk management     In this episode, we continue our circle back with Naeem Siddiqi, Senior Advisor, Risk and Quantitative Solutions, SAS, to explore the effects of COVID-19 on banks and risk managers, six months out from our previous discussions.  GARP’s Robert Sales moderates this two-part discussion with Naeem, who is also joined by Alex Kwiatkowski - Principal Industry Consultant, Global Banking Practice, SAS - to consider the current and potential post-pandemic impact of the coronavirus on credit risk, cyber risk, operational resilience and the banking business model.     You can listen to our earlier episodes with Naeem here:    May 2020 June 2020.      For more resources on this topic: click here.    Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to financial risk and have partnered on this episode of our COVID podcast series.  About SAS  As a leader in analytics, SAS has more than 40 years of experience helping organizations solve their toughest problems. Our unrelenting commitment to innovation enables banks to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. SAS provides an integrated, enterprise-wide risk-management platform for managing risk in an organization, from strategic to reputational, operational, financial or compliance-related risk management. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk.    SPEAKER BIOS     Naeem Siddiqi  Senior Advisor, Risk and Quantitative Solutions, SAS    Naeem Siddiqi is the author of the books Credit Risk Scorecards and Intelligent Credit Scoring, and has advised and trained bankers in over 20 countries on the art and science of credit scoring. He has worked in retail credit risk management since 1992, both as a consultant and as a risk manager at financial institutions.     At SAS, Siddiqi played a key role in the development of products relating to credit scoring. He is currently responsible for advising customers on issues concerning credit scoring and decisioning, risk strategy, climate change risk, and AI/ML in credit risk, as well as modernizing analytics infrastructures. He continues to meet and advise C-level bankers at top lending institutions worldwide.    Siddiqi was granted a bachelor’s in engineering with honors from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of London, and a master’s in business administration from York University in Toronto.      Alex Kwiatkowski  Principal Industry Consultant, Global Banking Practice, SAS    Alex Kwiatkowski is SAS’s Industry Lead for Banking & Capital Markets. His role centers on articulating and amplifying company strategy and point of view to C-level executives, partners, media and influencers, along with creating powerful narratives and compelling content for thought-leadership purposes.    Prior to joining SAS in October 2017, Alex was the Senior Strategist for Banking and Digital Channels at Finastra (formerly Misys). Before this, Alex ran IDC’s Financial Insights team in Europe, where he was responsible for all advisory and consulting services, working closely with banks, technology vendors and service providers. He also spent four years as a Principal Analyst within Ovum’s Financial Services Technology Practice, and prior to that completed a stint as a senior manager within LloydsTSB’s Business Delivery team.    With a career spanning over 15 years in the financial services industry, and a decade spent in the fast-moving telco world before that, Alex is a veritable mine of significant and valuable knowledge. He is full of keen insights into how the sector must evolve, is blessed with a restless curiosity to explore and challenge traditional thinking, and possesses an unquenchable thirst for discovering new information – from the trivial to the revelatory – to help form his opinions. A regular speaker at major global industry conferences – including Asian Banker Summit, Retail Banking Europe, FT Middle East Banking Forum, and Retail Banking Asia – Alex is an energized and engaging keynote, willing to tackle the biggest and most controversial issues head-on.    Alex holds a BA in Contemporary East European Studies from UCL.     

From Respond to Re-imagine - PART 2

From Respond to Re-imagine – PART 1: Charting the journey forward for banking and risk management   In this episode, we circle back with Naeem Siddiqi, Senior Advisor, Risk and Quantitative Solutions, SAS, to explore the effects of COVID-19 on banks and risk managers, six months out from our previous discussions. GARP’s Robert Sales moderates this two-part discussion with Naeem, who is also joined by Alex Kwiatkowski - Principal Industry Consultant, Global Banking Practice, SAS - to consider the current and potential post-pandemic impact of the coronavirus on credit risk, cyber risk, operational resilience and the banking business model. For more resources on this topic: click here.  Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to financial risk and have partnered on this episode of our COVID podcast series. About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS has more than 40 years of experience helping organizations solve their toughest problems. Our unrelenting commitment to innovation enables banks to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. SAS provides an integrated, enterprise-wide risk-management platform for managing risk in an organization, from strategic to reputational, operational, financial or compliance-related risk management. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk.   SPEAKER BIOS   Naeem Siddiqi Senior Advisor, Risk and Quantitative Solutions, SAS   Naeem Siddiqi is the author of the books Credit Risk Scorecards and Intelligent Credit Scoring, and has advised and trained bankers in over 20 countries on the art and science of credit scoring. He has worked in retail credit risk management since 1992, both as a consultant and as a risk manager at financial institutions.   At SAS, Siddiqi played a key role in the development of products relating to credit scoring. He is currently responsible for advising customers on issues concerning credit scoring and decisioning, risk strategy, climate change risk, and AI/ML in credit risk, as well as modernizing analytics infrastructures. He continues to meet and advise C-level bankers at top lending institutions worldwide.   Siddiqi was granted a bachelor’s in engineering with honors from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine at the University of London, and a master’s in business administration from York University in Toronto.     Alex Kwiatkowski Principal Industry Consultant, Global Banking Practice, SAS   Alex Kwiatkowski is SAS’s Industry Lead for Banking & Capital Markets. His role centers on articulating and amplifying company strategy and point of view to C-level executives, partners, media and influencers, along with creating powerful narratives and compelling content for thought-leadership purposes.   Prior to joining SAS in October 2017, Alex was the Senior Strategist for Banking and Digital Channels at Finastra (formerly Misys). Before this, Alex ran IDC’s Financial Insights team in Europe, where he was responsible for all advisory and consulting services, working closely with banks, technology vendors and service providers. He also spent four years as a Principal Analyst within Ovum’s Financial Services Technology Practice, and prior to that completed a stint as a senior manager within LloydsTSB’s Business Delivery team.   With a career spanning over 15 years in the financial services industry, and a decade spent in the fast-moving telco world before that, Alex is a veritable mine of significant and valuable knowledge. He is full of keen insights into how the sector must evolve, is blessed with a restless curiosity to explore and challenge traditional thinking, and possesses an unquenchable thirst for discovering new information – from the trivial to the revelatory – to help form his opinions. A regular speaker at major global industry conferences – including Asian Banker Summit, Retail Banking Europe, FT Middle East Banking Forum, and Retail Banking Asia – Alex is an energized and engaging keynote, willing to tackle the biggest and most controversial issues head-on.   Alex holds a BA in Contemporary East European Studies from UCL.

From Respond to Re-imagine - PART 1

 COVID-19 has resulted in significant decreases in demand for electricity, primarily due social distancing and quarantine policies. Glen Swindle, Managing Partner at Scoville Risk Partners, an energy analytics firm, joins us to take a deeper dive into the impact of COVID-19, and to look at other uncertainty factors driving electricity markets today. Glen will also discuss how markets may adapt to meet new challenges in this ever-changing field.    Glen Swindle, Managing Partner, Scoville Risk Partners  Glen Swindle is Managing Partner at Scoville Risk Partners, an energy analytics firm. Glen has held senior positions at Constellation Energy from 2000 to 2004 where he ran the Strategies group for the merchant energy business and at Credit Suisse from 2004 to 2012 where he was co-head of electricity and natural gas trading. Previously he held tenured positions at UCSB and Cornell University, in addition to adjunct positions at New York University and Rutgers. Glen is the author of Valuation and Risk Management in Energy Markets (Cambridge University Press, 2014) and Natural Gas Trading in North America (Scoville Risk Partners, 2018). He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Cornell University, an M.S.E. in Mechanical Aerospace Engineering from Princeton, and a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Caltech.  

COVID-19 and Disruption in Electricity Markets

The pandemic has certainly had a significant impact on the third line of defense in risk management, presenting audit with significant challenges in areas like credit risk modeling, emerging risk evaluation, internal controls and remote working. In this podcast, Citi’s Chief Auditor for risk, Andy Blight, discusses the fallout from COVID-19, the changes Citi’s audit team made in response to the crisis, and the audit adaptations we may see post-pandemic. Andy Blight, Chief Auditor – Risk, Citi Andy Blight is the Chief Auditor for Risk, responsible for Internal Audit’s coverage of Citi’s global independent risk management including Market Risk, Credit Risk, Operational Risk and Model Risk. Andy has over 20 years of experience in the banking industry in a number of Internal Audit and Risk Management roles. Prior to this role, Andy was Citi’s Regional Chief Auditor for EMEA. Andy originally joined Citi Internal Audit in 2014 from JPMorgan, where he was Executive Director, EMEA Corporate Audit. Prior to JPMorgan, Andy spent 7 years at Standard Chartered in various positions in London and Singapore, including Head of Audit for Consumer Banking and Head of Audit for Group Functions & Risk. In addition to his audit experience, Andy has worked in Market Risk Management and Operational Risk Management functions at ING and Barclays Capital. Andy is a Chartered Member of the Institute of Internal Auditors (CMIIA), Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (FCA), Qualified in Internal Audit Leadership (QIAL) and a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA).

How COVID-19 Has Changed the Audit Landscape

The pandemic has had a dramatic impact on commercial real estate, greatly dimming the short-term attractiveness of big cities while triggering extremely high delinquency rates on CRE loans and skyrocketing office vacancies. In this podcast, we speak with Bob Lieber, executive managing director at Island Capital Group, about the repercussions of COVID-19, the differences between this pandemic and other crises, the work-from-home approach, the unique CRE investment opportunities yielded by the market dislocation, and the potential “new normal” for offices after the development of a vaccine.

COVID-19 and the Commercial Real Estate Market

Clearly, the impacts of COVID-19 on banks globally are unprecedented and requiring huge pivots in a short time. Join us on this podcast where our experts discuss banking challenges, the impacts on balance sheet reporting, relationships with regulators, auditors and investors, what it all means for loan portfolios, the intersections with governments and supervisory authorities, and the implications for CECL during this critical year. For more resources on this issue from SAS  - click below: Tackle the New Complexity of IFRS 9 and CECL Standards Banking Analytics Solutions in the age of COVID-19 Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to financial risk and have partnered on this episode of our COVID podcast series. About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS has more than 40 years of experience helping organizations solve their toughest problems. Our unrelenting commitment to innovation enables banks to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. SAS provides an integrated, enterprise-wide risk-management platform for managing risk in an organization, from strategic to reputational, operational, financial or compliance-related risk management. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk.   Speaker Bios:   Prof. Dr. Donald Baillie is the head of the Risk Practice for Austria, Germany & Switzerland at SAS. He has 25+ years’ experience in the Financial Markets, and Risk Management in particular, having worked for banks (Treasury and Market Risk), a big-4 consultancy, and most recently as managing director of a medium-sized international management consultancy. He has been involved in more than 100 Finance and Risk Management projects throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Donald holds a professorship at a University of Applied Science in Vienna, and has taught Finance, Risk and Data Science courses for almost 20 years and (co)authored several books. In addition to other professional certifications such as Stock and Derivatives Markets trading licenses, he is a proud holder of GARP’s FRM certification.    Manuel Fortes is the Global Solution Lead for Expected Credit Loss at SAS , with strong Industry, risk and SAS knowledge within a wide spectrum of risk solutions. More than 20 years of experience, ranging from data modelling and ETL processes, including risk modelling and reporting, to solution implementation, in the Risk and Finance area.    Tim McPeak is a Principal Industry Consultant with the Risk Research & Quantitative Solutions division at SAS. He has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry with a specific focus on credit risk management. Prior to joining SAS, Tim worked as a Senior Risk Management Consultant with financial technology firm Sageworks with previous experience in retail, commercial and investment banking.  

COVID-19: Implications for Banks

We would like to thank our listeners for tuning in to our special subseries on COVID-19. We have had some fascinating and productive discussions and will surely continue to discuss this subject for a long time to come. We will, however, be easing from the weekly cadence on this subseries as we re-expand our coverage on other pressing elements of risk in finance and energy. We look forward bringing you more and more insights from thought leaders in risk over the coming months. Stay tuned.

A Quick Message from GARP

In today’s episode, Jo Paisley, Co-President of the GARP Risk Institute (GRI), will be speaking with David Kelly, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Quant Foundry. Their conversation focuses on a collaborative endeavour between Quant Foundry and Imperial College London to model the impacts of COVID-19. In addition to the numerous insights around the financial risks being generated by pandemic, there will be direct discussion of how risk professionals can utilise this knowledge to inform their own risk modelling, especially in the context of credit modelling.     Speaker Bio David Kelly is co-founder and Managing Director of Quant Foundry Limited, a global leader in climate-related corporate credit modelling. David spent over 20 years’ experience in the Investment Banking sector having held a number of senior leadership and technical expert roles in Tier 1 banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Merrill Lynch and Deutsche Bank. David’s career in banking has covered front office derivative trading, market risk management, model risk management, model validation, risk architecture and counterparty risk. David has been instrumental in the application of Risk Architecture designs for advanced modelling solutions and system changes to requirements under regulatory directives including Basel 2.5, CVA, Stress Testing, IFRS9 and FRTB. David read Mathematics at Bristol and Part III in Pure Mathematics at Cambridge.

Modelling COVID-19

**We’d like to take a moment to inform you that this climate series is moving to its own dedicated channel. All future episodes, as well as the previous four instalments of the series, will now be located on the Climate Risk Podcast channel. You can find us HERE. **   In this episode of the Climate Risk Podcast series, we are moving beyond financial services to look at how climate change will affect firms in the real economy. We will be joined by Julie Baddeley, one of the UK’s most experienced women directors, who will be sharing insights on this topic from the perspective of the Board. Julie is also one of the founders of Chapter Zero, a fast-growing network for Chairs, Committee Chairs and Non-Executive Directors. Chapter Zero has been established to provide support, education and tools to this important group on the matters of climate change and the associated risks and opportunities. Links to find out more about Chapter Zero, as well as some of there useful educational tools, can be found below.   Links from today’s discussion Chapter Zero’s Website: https://www.chapterzero.org.uk/ Chapter Zero’s Toolkit for Boards: https://www.chapterzero.org.uk/toolkit/ Chapter Zero’s Change Management Toolkit: https://www.chapterzero.org.uk/change-management/ GARP’s 2020 Survey of Climate Risk Management at Financial Firms: https://climate.garp.org/insight/second-annual-global-survey-of-climate-risk-management-at-financial-firms/   If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com 

Responding to Climate Risks: Perspectives From the Board

Today, we welcome back Steve Durbin, Managing Director of the Information Security Forum (ISF), to discuss the evolving implications of data privacy in the face of our concerns around information pertaining to public health. Companies and employers are starting to collect and process new categories of potentially sensitive information about their employees, including whether they are displaying symptoms of the virus, the results of any COVID-19 testing and body temperature checks, and their geolocation data and social contact history. The imperative for public health is clear, but what new data privacy issues does this raise for companies and employees?     For more information on how the ISF works with organizations to address their challenges, please visit …. https://www.securityforum.org/   Steve Durbin – Biography       Steve Durbin is the Managing Director of the Information Security Forum (ISF). His main areas of focus include strategy, information technology, cyber security and the emerging security threat landscape across both the corporate and personal environments.  He is a frequent speaker and commentator on technology and security issues. Formerly at Ernst & Young, Steve has been involved with IPOs, mergers and acquisitions of fast-growth companies across Europe and the USA.  Having previously been senior vice president at Gartner, he has advised a number of NASDAQ and NYSE listed global technology companies. Steve has served as a Digital 50 advisory committee member in the United States, a body established to improve the talent pool for Fortune 500 boards around cyber security and information governance and he has been ranked as one of the top 10 individuals shaping the way that organizations and leaders approach information security careers. He has also recently been featured on the top 20 most influential list of leaders whose companies have a vision that shapes the conceptual landscape of their respective industries. Steve is a Chartered Marketer, a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, Forbes Business Council Member and a visiting lecturer at Henley Business School where he speaks on the role of the Board in Cybersecurity.  

Need to know: Data Privacy vs. Public Health

Welcome to the Risk Intelligence Podcast, where the Global Association of Risk Professionals, also known as GARP, brings together the world’s foremost Risk Practitioners, from around the globe, for in depth insights and discussions on today’s most important risk issues in finance and energy. Here is your chance to listen in.  