GARP Risk Podcast

Hear from Michael Crumpler, CEO, Credit Benchmark and Jon Hilsenrath, former Wall St. Journal senior writer and founder of Serpa Pinto Advisory, as we examine early warning signs, strategic responses, and innovative risk management approaches needed in today's volatile trade environment. This podcast explores the intersection of trade policy and credit risk, offering insights for senior risk managers navigating an increasingly complex global landscape: Rising Credit Risk: How tariffs are reshaping the credit risk landscape across key global sectors and what early warning signs risk officers should be tracking. Capital Allocation Strategies: How CROs and portfolio managers should reframe risk appetites given significant credit deterioration in vulnerable sectors. Data-Driven Decision Making: The role of alternative data and credit consensus insights in scenario planning and stress testing for portfolios exposed to supply chain shocks and regulatory retaliation. Central Bank Response: Potential actions the Fed and ECB may take given impacts of tariffs on inflation, Treasury yields, and economic uncertainty. Links from today's discussion: Global Credit Risk Rising as Trade War Starts   Speaker Bios Michael Crumpler, CEO, Credit Benchmark Michael was appointed CEO of Credit Benchmark in June 2023 after serving in several key executive roles including most recently as Chief Operating Officer and Head of Risk. He is also a member of the Executive Committee. Prior to joining Credit Benchmark in 2016, Michael worked at Goldman Sachs in the Credit Risk Management & Advisory group covering a diverse portfolio of entities across the natural resources and public finance sectors. Before Goldman, Michael spent over 10 years in other credit risk and banking roles at Barclays, Dexia and Moody's Investors Service focused primarily on energy, infrastructure and U.S. public finance. Michael holds a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and a Bachelor of English Literature from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.   Jon Hilsenrath, Former Wall St. Journal Senior Writer and Editor Author and 26-year veteran of The Wall Street Journal. Former chief economics correspondent, economics editor, markets editor and senior writer, based in New York, Hong Kong & Washington D.C. Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2014 for coverage of the Federal Reserve; part of WSJ team that was Pulitzer finalist in 2009 for coverage of financial crisis; contributed on-the-scene reporting to the WSJ's Sept. 11 coverage which won 2002 Pulitzer. Author of “Yellen,” a biography of the Treasury Secretary and former Federal Reserve Chairwoman, book described by The Economist magazine as "elegant and erudite." Wilson Center Fellow, 2021. Cum laude graduate of Duke University, Knight-Bagehot Fellow at Columbia University with MBA and M.A. Hong Kong University of Science and Technology alum. Partner of Duke economics department as Visiting Fellow.   Moderator Katherine Wolicki, Global Head of Engagement and Outreach, GARP Benchmarking Initiative (GBI) Katherine is the Global Head of Engagement and Outreach for GARP Benchmarking Initiative (GBI).  GBI plays a key role in supporting evidence-based policymaking through the provision of industry benchmarking studies.  Prior to this she was with HSBC for 12 years where she led the Global Financial and Model Risk Regulatory Policy and Engagement team for Risk. The team was responsible for the external regulatory interface for the Traded Risk, Treasury Risk Management and Global Risk Analytics function.  This included the provision of guidance on regulatory risk matters, regulatory policy interpretation and industry engagement.   Prior to this she was based in Brussels as a Public Affairs consultant specialising in financial services regulation.  Katie has an MA in International Economic Relations from American University and a Maîtrise in European and International Law from the University of La Reunion. She is a fluent French speaker and an avid hiker and mountaineer.     About Credit Benchmark Credit Benchmark is a leading provider of credit risk data and analytics. The company aggregates and anonymizes contributed risk data from over 40 global financial institutions, producing unique obligor-level Credit Consensus Ratings and other key credit metrics. Covering over 110,000 legal entities, 90% of which are not publicly rated—Credit Benchmark's insights are trusted by major financial institutions worldwide to enhance their internal credit risk analysis and gain accurate risk perspectives.

Hear from Zeynep Tunc at SAS, who is leading risk management activities across Northern Europe, to learn about AgenticAI, a groundbreaking approach to decision making that interacts dynamically with its environment to achieve specific goals. Key topics: How AgenticAI differs from traditional AI through dynamic environmental interaction The technology behind the revolution: reinforcement learning, decision theory, and cognitive modeling Real-world applications in autonomous vehicles, loan approvals, portfolio management, and collections Critical ethical considerations including transparency, accountability, and bias mitigation Featuring insights from cutting edge research, including a Cambridge University project on self-driving cars, this episode maps the future landscape of AI-driven decision making. Relevant links: Rethinking risk: Smarter models, better decisions Discover your organisation's Gen AI preparedness vs others - try the SAS GenAI benchmark tool    Speaker's Bio Zeynep Tunc is a credit risk professional with experience managing originations, customer management, and collections teams for consumer and small business portfolios. She joined SAS in 2022 and is currently leading risk management activities across Northern Europe. Zeynep is passionate about driving automation, seamless customer experiences, convergence of credit and fraud evaluations across customer lifecycle, AI-driven customer engagements, and working with clients to support near and long-term strategic roadmaps to drive value. Before joining SAS, Zeynep held key roles at financial institutions including Citibank, HSBC, Toyota Finance, and UniCredit, as well as software vendors such as FICO. Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning. About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. We help organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. No matter how you prioritize risk, SAS has proven solutions and best practices to help organizations establish a risk-aware culture, optimize capital and liquidity, and meet regulatory demands. SAS® provides on-demand, high-performance risk analytics to ensure greater efficiency and transparency. Strike the right balance between short- and long-term strategies. And confidently address changing regulations and manage compliance. Discover why 90% of the Fortune 100 use SAS. sas.com/riskmanagement.

Hear from Peter Mortensen, the chief risk officer of Russell Investments, about inflation volatility, tariffs, liquidity risk, AI threats and benefits, and ERM. Across the financial services spectrum, amid a global environment of uncertainty and political upheaval, risk management is as daunting as ever in 2025. Banks, for example, must contend with everything from cybersecurity hazards and the rise of AI to regulatory risk, global debt problems and increased supply-chain risk. Investment managers, meanwhile, face many of the same challenges but are also concerned with portfolio management, inflation volatility, the introduction of new tariffs, stress testing and liquidity risk obstacles.  Peter Mortensen, CRO of Russell Investments, joins us today to share his insights on the risk trends, challenges and opportunities impacting the global investment management community. Relevant Links: GARP Benchmarking Initiative   Speaker's Bio Peter Mortensen is chief risk officer at Russell Investments, where he is responsible for measuring and monitoring market and liquidity risks for the firm's risk management program and regulatory reporting. He was promoted to CRO in June 2023, after serving a stint as the firm's managing director of investment risk. In his current role, Peter also oversees the development, daily operation and support of Russell Investments' proprietary multi-asset enterprise risk management system, which facilitates quantification of market, liquidity, credit and concentration risks. Since July 2015, he has assisted the CFA Institute with their curriculum development on risk management. Prior to joining Russell Investments in 2012, Peter worked as a senior risk analyst in the product solution group at Nykredit Bank. In that role, he was responsible for the development and implementation of OTC pricing models, in addition to models for pricing expected liquidity and capital costs arising from OTC trades.

Hear from Moody's Analytics' Cris deRitis about cybersecurity, AI, deglobalization, regulatory risk, global debt problems, geopolitical volatility, supply-chain risk, and other key issues that will impact risk managers this year. In 2024, the complex obstacles facing financial institutions and their risk managers were illuminated by headline-grabbing risk events – including the CrowdStrike IT outage, the fall of Republic First Bank, terrorist attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea, and a plethora of climate-change-abetted natural disasters. Indeed, multi-faceted risks - ranging from rising cyber threats, third-party risks and AI encroachment to evolving regulatory and climate risks to geopolitical volatility and supply-chain uncertainty – created a very challenging environment. Part of the problem is that many of the major risk types are interconnected and distributed across multiple transmission channels. For example, cybersecurity not only covers ransomware attacks and internal breaches but also requires monitoring of threats from both third-party vendors (like CrowdStrike) and from AI tools, like deepfake technology, used by cyber criminals. Likewise, geopolitical risks, such as the Russia/Ukraine and Israel/Hamas wars, have a major impact on the supply chain.  This year, risk managers can expect to face many of the same issues, while also tackling global debt problems, deglobalization, political upheaval, and even greater AI, cyber and third-party hazards. Relevant Links: Modeling Risk (GARP column by Cris deRitis) GARP Benchmarking Initiative GBI Study on Operational Resilience: Key Findings   Speaker's Bio Cristian deRitis is Managing Director and Deputy Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics. As the head of econometric model research and development, he specializes in the analysis of current and future economic conditions, scenario design, consumer credit markets and housing. In addition to his published research, Cristian is a co-host on the popular Inside Economics Podcast. He can be reached at cristian.deritis@moodys.com.

Join Martim Rocha, Global Head of Risk Banking Solutions at SAS, and Luis Jesus, Senior Manager at SAS, as they discuss how financial institutions can transform their risk management to thrive in today's volatile market. Financial organizations today face heightened regulatory scrutiny while contending with siloed, legacy risk systems. But those that embrace AI, cloud, and integration can unlock new levels of efficiency, scalability, and proactive insights. Hear expert strategies for building a future-ready risk ecosystem - one that delivers governance, control, and competitive advantage.  Key topics: - Top challenges risk teams face in cost rationalization and automation - How modernizing risk technology impacts business processes and decision-making. - Balancing business continuity, modernization, and regulatory demands - Addressing banking industry challenges and trends related to risk modernization over the next 5 years   Speakers' Bios Martim Rocha, Global Head of Risk Banking Solutions at SAS Martim manages a team of global experts on banking risk management, defining roadmaps and priorities for SAS solutions and supporting customers all over the world on their journey to take the best of the SAS solutions, from scoping and defining the best approach for each business case to helping customers taking the SAS solutions through implementation to be live as a production system. Martim has published several papers and has spoken at several conferences around the world on the topics of Risk Management in Banking, Risk and Finance Integration, IFRS9/CECL, Regulatory Risk Management, ALM, Capital Planning , Scenario Based Analysis and Stress-testing. With SAS for more then 17 years, he played the role of Strategic Advisor and Solution Designer on projects such as Stress-testing on a G-Sib based in London; IFRS9 and Stress-testing at G-SIB bank covering more than 60 locations worldwide; IFRS9 impairment at a couple of Top 5 Nordic Bank covering 5 countries; IFRS9 full-scope at Top banks in UAE; and IFRS9 impairment at more than a Top 5 South African Bank. Martim has more than 25 years of experience in the financial services industry on the topics of risk management, business analytics and data management. He has designed and managed projects for banks, insurance firms and other financial services companies in areas such as financial management, risk management, predictive analytics, financial and sales performance, strategy management, and customer analysis and segmentation. In addition, he was a lecturer for courses on advanced decision support systems, data warehousing and data mining at the Autonomous University of Lisbon and at the ISCTE Business School. Before joining SAS, Martim was a partner on the Business Analytics focused consulting firm, Noscitare where he led the delivery of many IT projects in financial services companies. Martim has a post-graduate degree in Business Administration from Nova SBE and has an undergraduate degree in Computer Science from ISIG.   Luis Jesus, Senior Manager at Risk, Fraud and Compliance Solutions , SAS Luis Jesus is a risk management professional with 20+ years of experience in the financial services sector. He is currently a Senior Manager in the Integrated Balance-sheet Management solutions. Luís has a professional experience of more than 20 years in the financial sector being involved in different risk management projects namely on the implementation of the Basel Accord requirements, development of PD, LGD and CCF models, operational risk frameworks, recovery and resolution plans, ICAAP and ILAAP frameworks, development of IFRS9 compliant impairment calculation information systems and risk governance. Before joining SAS he was the Chief Risk Officer in a Portuguese bank and before that he was an Associated Partner in KPMG. Links from today's discussion: https://www.sas.com/en/whitepapers/how-to-win-by-liberating-alm-113740.html   Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning.   About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. We help organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. No matter how you prioritize risk, SAS has proven solutions and best practices to help organizations establish a risk-aware culture, optimize capital and liquidity, and meet regulatory demands. SAS® provides on-demand, high-performance risk analytics to ensure greater efficiency and transparency. Strike the right balance between short- and long-term strategies. And confidently address changing regulations and manage compliance. Discover why 90% of the Fortune 100 use SAS. sas.com/riskmanagement.

Hear from Pedro Morales, the Director and Global Head of AML/Sanctions Compliance at Google, about AI, cyber threats, fraud, third-party risk, regulation and other complex operational resilience obstacles, trends and risks. The Federal Reserve defines operational resilience as the ability to deliver operations, including critical operations and core business lines, through a disruption from any hazard. In an interconnected world rife with volatility and uncertainty, there are certainly a plethora of hazards that can disrupt a business, and managing operational resilience is therefore a daunting task. At financial institutions, the operational resilience umbrella covers everything from AI, geopolitical threats and cyber risk to fraud, money laundering, IT outrages, third-party risk and disaster recovery. Indeed, on any given day, an operational resilience leader could have to contend with, for example, a cyberattack, an AI threat, a money-laundering scheme, or the fallout from a natural disaster or from wars in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Governance and regulatory obstacles, moreover, also come with the job. With so many different problems to contend with, there's not necessarily a one-size-fits-all approach for operational resilience. But a manager must stay on top of trends and be aware of all potential risks, while also following best practices – all as part of an effort to withstand, adapt and recover from disruptive events. *The views expressed by our guest speaker, Pedro Morales, are his alone and do not necessarily reflect those of his employer. Relevant Links: GARP Benchmarking Initiative Risk Intelligence: Operational Risk   Speaker's Bio Pedro Morales is the Director and Global Head of AML/Sanctions Compliance for Google. He previously served as Google's Global Head of Enterprise Risk Management for Payments, and has also worked in various leadership roles at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, where he supervised large banks.

Join industry experts Theodora Lau, founder of Unconventional Ventures and co-author of The Metaverse Economy and Beyond Good, and Julie Muckleroy, Global Banking Strategist at SAS as they explore the critical crossroads of AI in banking for 2025. This podcast delves into how banks are shifting from AI hype to strategic implementation, focusing on building foundational elements like data governance and trust. The conversation examines how mature approaches to AI can align investment with board priorities, select strategic use cases, and ultimately deliver meaningful return on investment while navigating complex regulatory landscapes. Key Insights: - How banks can align AI strategies with business priorities - Potential benefits and risks of AI technology - Innovative applications supporting small businesses, fraud prevention, and customer experience - Social good opportunities in AI development Dive into the future of banking technology with this must-listen podcast episode. Relevant Links: 2025 Trends in Global Banking | SAS   Speakers' Bio Theodora Lau, Founder, Unconventional Ventures Theodora Lau is the founder of Unconventional Ventures, a public speaker, and an advisor. She is the co-author of The Metaverse Economy (2023) and Beyond Good (2021), and host of One Vision, a podcast on fintech and innovation. Her monthly column on FinTech Futures explores the intersection of financial services, tech, and humanity. She is named one of American Banker's Most Influential Women in FinTech in 2023. She is also a regular contributor and commentator for top industry events and publications, including BBC News, Finovate, American Banker, and Journal of Digital Banking. Julie Muckleroy, Global Banking Strategist, SAS With a background in marketing leadership roles at SaaS organizations and large US banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, Julie brings extensive knowledge and expertise in global banking trends and marketing strategies. She evaluates the future state of banking as a strategist at SAS.   Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning. About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. We help organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. No matter how you prioritize risk, SAS has proven solutions and best practices to help organizations establish a risk-aware culture, optimize capital and liquidity, and meet regulatory demands. SAS® provides on-demand, high-performance risk analytics to ensure greater efficiency and transparency. Strike the right balance between short- and long-term strategies.

Hear from Bo Xu, a Principal at Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and a member of GARP's Risk and AI Advisory Committee, about GenAI use cases and challenges, as well as its impact on modeling, governance, regulation and risk careers. Even though generative AI is in its early days, its already having a big effect in financial risk management. As a powerful, interactive technology that can understand natural language, quickly search through reams of data and provide human-style answer to questions, GenAI is being used today for everything from data processing to risk monitoring and measurement to quantitative risk modeling. At the same time, financial institutions must decide how to properly govern GenAI, particularly as critics have expressed concerns about data leakage, intellectual property protection and third-party risk. What's more, there are questions about the impact GenAI could have on risk jobs and about how regulators are going to respond to this innovative technology. Relevant Links: GARP Benchmarking Initiative Risk Intelligence: Technology Section   Speaker's Bio Bo Xu serves as a Principal at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), where he is a core member of the global GenAI expert team. His professional journey at BCG began in 2019, following a four-year tenure at KPMG in the risk consulting practice, concentrating on CCAR/DFAST model development and validation work. In his role at BCG, Xu leads a multi-disciplinary team focused on AI and GenAI programs. His responsibilities encompass strategy development, AI/GenAI implementation, and change management. He also has expertise in credit risk analysis, model risk management, and data governance from his earlier career.

Hear from Terisa Roberts, Global Head of Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS and Sarah Murphy, Principal Director of Accenture Data and AI, as we explore real-time customer decision making and what it means for portfolio monitoring. Thanks to the internet and artificial intelligence, consumers today can make financial decisions through multiple channels, resulting in a new level of competitive pressure for the sector. Financial services firms must make decisions that are not only fast and reliable, but also automated. Real-time customer decisioning plays a pivotal role in achieving these goals throughout the credit value chain, from the point of onboarding (including KYC, credit risk and fraud assessments and marketing) and beyond. Today's episode will focus on: What are the global trends driving change in customer decisioning in financial services? What problems/challenges are there with conventional approaches? What are the benefits of modernizing your credit decisioning infrastructure? How are forward-thinking organizations deriving concrete business value from their decisioning modernization projects? Links from today's discussion: SAS and Accenture Risk Model Decisioning Risk-Based Decisioning in an Age of Uncertainty Part 1 Risk-Based Decisioning in an Age of Uncertainty Part 2 Speakers Bios: Terisa Roberts Global Head of Risk Modeling and Decisioning, SAS Terisa Roberts is a risk management professional with 15 years of experience primarily in the financial services sector. She is currently a Director and Global Solution lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS. Terisa has an extensive background in risk modeling for retail and commercial portfolios including regulatory capital stress testing and IFRS9/CECL. She advises banks other financial services providers and regulators concerning innovations in Risk Modeling and Decisioning including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Teresa holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Informatics and lives in Sydney Australia   Sarah Murphy, Principal Director, Accenture Data and AI As a Principal Director at Accenture, Sarah leads the growth of Intelligent Decisioning within the Applied Intelligence practice, leveraging 25+ years of risk management and operational experience in financial services and global consulting. ​  Sarah has a proven track record of solving complex risk issues across the credit customer lifecycle, applying predictive analytics and decision management to transform business culture, minimize exposure, increase profitability, and create risk management centers of excellence. She also has a strong executive presence and excellent communication skills, enabling her to partner with clients and stakeholders at all levels and deliver value-added solutions. ​ Passionate about staying at the forefront of the latest trends and technologies in intelligent decisioning, her mission is to help organizations harness the power of data and analytics to optimize their decision making, enhance their customer experience, and achieve their strategic goals.    Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning.   About SAS SAS is a global leader in data and AI. We help organizations transform data into trusted decisions faster by providing knowledge in the moments that matter. No matter how you prioritize risk, SAS has proven solutions and best practices to help organizations establish a risk-aware culture, optimize capital and liquidity, and meet regulatory demands. SAS® provides on-demand, high-performance risk analytics to ensure greater efficiency and transparency. Strike the right balance between short- and long-term strategies. And confidently address changing regulations and manage compliance.  Discover why 90% of Fortune 100 companies choose SAS to solve their toughest challenges at sas.com/riskmanagement.

Hear from Cristian deRitis, deputy chief economist at Moody's analytics, about the evolution of stress testing, current trends, and the biggest challenges facing banks and regulators. Regulatory stress tests play a vital role in ensuring that large banks hold enough capital to withstand extreme recessions, while internal stress tests at banks are used for everything from capital and liquidity planning to risk monitoring, risk identification and operational resilience. The 2023 failures of a group of mid-sized U.S. banks, however, have led some critics to question whether the Federal Reserve's annual stress test is broad enough, comprehensive enough and sufficiently proactive – particularly with respect to emerging threats and rare tail risks. Globally, meanwhile, we've seen stress testing expand beyond capital and liquidity and into areas like climate risk, which has created a whole new set of hurdles for regulators and banks. In the future, to address perceived flaws, it's feasible that we could see a broadening of regulatory stress tests and changes to central banks' approaches to scenarios. Banks, meanwhile, may consider increasing the frequency of their internal tests and expanding their use of AI models to rapidly factor in a wider array of scenarios. Relevant Links: GARP Benchmarking Initiative Modeling Risk (Risk Intelligence column by Cristian deRitis)   Speaker's Bio Cristian deRitis is Managing Director and Deputy Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics. As the head of econometric model research and development, he specializes in the analysis of current and future economic conditions, scenario design, consumer credit markets and housing. In addition to his published research, Cristian is a co-host on the popular Inside Economics Podcast. He can be reached at cristian.deritis@moodys.com.

Nirav Shah, a founding partner at Versor Investments, speaks with GARP editorial director Robert Sales about the pros and cons of artificial intelligence and machine learning for buy-side institutions. Though significant concerns remain about the bias, fairness an explainability of AI and ML, these innovative technologies have made great inroads in financial services. Banks, for example, now use AI and ML for everything from anti-money laundering to fraud detection to risk modeling and analysis, while asset management firms employ these tools for portfolio optimization and risk mitigation. Nirav Shah discusses the role ML plays in risk reduction and alpha generation at buy-side institutions, and offers his thoughts on, among other topics, data governance and data management challenges, the growth of generative AI, the importance of regulation, and potential future applications of this technology. Speaker's Bio Nirav Shah is a founding partner at Versor Investments, where he has built innovative, scalable systems for using alternative data and AI/ML techniques. These tools are used in the firm's investment strategies, particularly within the futures and equities markets. He has also worked on various parts of the investment process at Versor, ranging from research to portfolio construction and trading. He has nearly two decades of experience in quantitative and systematic investment management. Prior to Versor Investments, he founded a consulting firm focused on quantitative research. Earlier, he served as Vice President at Investcorp in New York, where he focused on asset allocation and quantitative research. His career also includes a role as a Quantitative Researcher at Phoenix Global Capital Management, a CTA based in Chicago.

Hear from Daniel Wagner, CEO of Country Risk Solutions, about the complexities of the global geopolitical risk landscape. In these volatile and uncertain times, identifying, measuring and managing geopolitical risk is a daunting task. Everywhere we turn, geopolitical struggles are grabbing headlines, whether we're talking about, for example, the Israel-Hamas and Russia-Ukraine wars, U.S.-China strategic relations, or Red Sea hostilities. These multi-layered events are having a huge impact across the risk management spectrum, affecting everything from market risk to supply-chain risk to credit risk, cyber risk and liquidity risk. Complicating matters further, they are idiosyncratic and very difficult to predict. Keeping all this in mind, there are certainly still steps that financial risk managers can take to better measure and mitigate geopolitical threats. Our guest speaker, Daniel Wagner, is the perfect person to shed light on today's complex geopolitical environment and to peer into the future.  Links From Today's Discussion: GARP Benchmarking Initiative (GBI)®   Speaker's Bio Daniel Wagner, founder and CEO, Country Risk Solutions Daniel has more than three decades of experience assessing cross-border risk. He is an authority on political risk insurance and analysis and has worked for some of the world's most respected and best-known companies, including AIG, GE, the African Development Bank, the Asian Development Bank, and the World Bank Group. Until the end of 2023, he was Adaptation Finance Lead and Technical Advisor on Private Capital Mobilization for COP28 in Abu Dhabi. Prior to that, he was Senior Investment Officer for Guarantees and Syndications at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank in Beijing and Abu Dhabi. Daniel has published 10 books – Decision-Making in the Polycrisis Era, The Chinese Epiphany, The Chinese Vortex, The America-China Divide, China Vision, AI Supremacy, Virtual Terror, Global Risk Agility and Decision-Making, Managing Country Risk, and Political Risk Insurance Guide – as well as more than 700 articles on current affairs and risk management. He is a regular contributor to such publications as the South China Morning Post, Sunday Guardian, Diplomatic Courier and Fair Observer, among many others. Please see www.countryrisksolutions.com for a full listing of his publications and media interviews.

 In this podcast, Julie Muckleroy, Global Banking Strategist from SAS, and Abraham Izquierdo, Managing Director of Trading and Treasury Risks at Grupo Financiero Banorte, explore the top risk management trends for 2024. With the start of 2024, persistent high interest rates and inflation remain key concerns. Adding to these challenges are potential conflict escalation in the Middle East, threats to global shipping lanes, and historically low water levels in Panama, among others. The fallout from the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and the rapid growth of Generative AI are also being analyzed, impacting both smaller financial institutions' balance sheets in the U.S. and the wider financial landscape.   Speakers' Bios: Abraham M Izquierdo, FRM: Managing Director of Trading & Treasury Risks at Grupo Financiero Banorte, overseeing balance sheet oversight, policy compliance, hedging strategies, and interest rate risk management. He also manages liquidity risk framework and the Basel III directive, as well as capital management and surveillance for Grupo Financiero Banorte. Julie Muckleroy: Global Banking Strategist in SAS' Global Industry Marketing organization. With a background in marketing leadership roles at SaaS organizations and large US banks like Bank of America and Wells Fargo, Julie brings extensive knowledge and expertise in global banking trends and marketing strategies. She evaluates the future state of banking as a strategist at SAS. Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning.   About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS' award-winning capabilities in analytics, risk management, and other technology areas have helped customers across the globe solve their toughest and ever-evolving business problems. Its unrelenting commitment to innovation enables organizations across financial services to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. Through the latest developments in machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and optimization, SAS supports diverse environments and scales to meet changing needs. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk

Hear from Moody's Analytics' Cris deRitis about geopolitical risk, cybersecurity, political unease, supply-chain threats, and other key issues that will impact risk managers this year. 2023 was a hectic and extremely challenging year for risk managers. The U.S. regional banking crisis grabbed headlines, with failures being blamed on everything from poor risk culture and ineffective risk modeling to interest-rate volatility – and even to the speed at which news travels in the social media era. Geopolitical risk and supply-chain risk also contributed to an environment of volatility and uncertainty, fueled by the start of a violent conflict between Israel and Hamas, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, and attacks on commercial shipping vessels in the Red Sea. Technology, moreover, has evolved, with cyberattacks becoming more sophisticated and more prevalent, and with new innovations – like generative AI – bringing both risks and opportunities. That leads us to today's topic: namely, how will the remainder of 2024 shake out? What changes may be on the horizon, and which trends will have the greatest impact on the financial risk management landscape? Cris deRitis, the deputy chief economist at Moody's Analytics, sheds some light on what lies ahead for risk managers.   Links From Today's Discussion: GBI® survey on energy security risk | Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) posted on the topic | LinkedIn https://www.garp.org/garp-benchmarking-initiative https://www.garp.org/risk-intelligence/modeling-risk/all   SPEAKER BIO: Cristian deRitis is the Deputy Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics. As the head of model research and development, he specializes in the analysis of current and future economic conditions, consumer credit markets and housing. Before joining Moody's Analytics, he worked for Fannie Mae. In addition to his published research, Cristian is named on two U.S. patents for credit modeling techniques. Cristian is also a co-host on the popular Inside Economics Podcast. He can be reached at cristian.deritis@moodys.com.

Hear veteran risk manager, advisor and professor Clifford Rossi's viewpoints on trends, threats and opportunities in the commercial and residential real estate markets.  The past couple of years have been an extremely challenging time for risk practitioners charged with measuring and managing real estate risk. In both commercial real estate and residential real estate, concerns have been raised globally about interest rates, inflation and economic uncertainty. Indeed, in a recent Federal Reserve survey on salient risks – part of the Fed's October Financial Stability Report – roughly 75 percent of respondents cited the potential for “large losses on CRE and residential real estate.” CRE, more specifically, has been plagued by escalating vacancy rates for office buildings, thanks in part to the remote work trend that started during the pandemic and has since taken off. Residential real estate, meanwhile, has dealt with worries about housing affordability. As a former CRO at multiple banks and as an ex-senior risk manager at Fannie Mae and Freddi Mac, Cliff Rossi, our honored guest today, knows all about the CRE and residential real estate risks facing financial institutions today. Cliff, the current Director of the Smith Enterprise Risk Consortium at the University of Maryland (UMD), speaks with GARP editorial director Robert Sales about global real estate concerns and challenges, and offers advice on how firms can more effectively manage their exposures.   SPEAKER'S BIO: Clifford Rossi (PhD) is the Director of the Smith Enterprise Risk Consortium at the University of Maryland (UMD) and a Professor-of-the-Practice and Executive-in-Residence at UMD's Robert H. Smith School of Business. He is also the author of GARP's monthly “CRO Outlook” column. Prior to entering academia, Rossi had nearly 25 years of experience in banking and government, having held senior executive roles in risk management at several of the largest financial services companies. His most recent position was Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer for Citigroup's Consumer Lending Group, where he was responsible for overseeing the risk of a $300+B global portfolio of mortgage, home equity, student loans and auto loans with 700 employees under his direction. While there he was intimately involved in Citi's TARP and stress test activities. He also served as Chief Credit Officer at Washington Mutual (WaMu) and as Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer at Countrywide Bank. Previous to these assignments, Rossi held senior risk management positions at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He started his career during the thrift crisis at the U.S. Treasury's Office of Domestic Finance and later at the Office of Thrift Supervision working on key policy issues affecting depositories. Rossi was also an adjunct professor in the Finance Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business for eight years and has numerous academic and nonacademic articles on banking industry topics. Rossi is frequently quoted on financial policy issues in major newspapers and has appeared on such programs as C-SPAN's Washington Journal and CNN's Situation Room. His book for risk practitioners and graduate students, A Risk Professional's Survival Guide, was published in 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. His research interests are in financial and nonfinancial risk management, risk governance and analytics and climate risk.

Hear from Wall Street veteran and author Aaron Brown about the impact of fast-evolving technology on risk management. Financial institutions are now using everything from machine-learning modeling and generative AI to blockchain and public-key cryptography for risk monitoring, measurement and mitigation. What's more, we can see on the horizon the development of other tools – like central bank digital currencies – that could further alter the landscape. However, each of these technologies present their own set of challenges, and it's important for risk managers to understand both their advantages and potential drawbacks. Aaron Brown, a renowned author and former CRO of AQR Capital Management, has had a front-row seat to the evolution of technology in financial risk management. He joins GARP editorial director Robert Sales to discuss the pros and cons of technological innovations, and to explore what's on the horizon, drawing on his previous work as a trader, portfolio manager, head of mortgage securities and risk manager for several global financial institutions. SPEAKER'S BIO Aaron Brown teaches finance and mathematics as an adjunct at NYU and writes Risk Intelligence's monthly “Tech Perspectives” column. He is a distinguished risk manager who has held a variety of high-level positions on Wall Street, dating back to the early 1980s. Most recently, he served for 10 years as chief risk officer of the large hedge fund AQR Capital Management. His books on risk management include The Poker Face of Wall Street, Red-Blooded Risk, Financial Risk Management for Dummies and A World of Chance. In 2011, he was named GARP's Risk Manager of the Year.

In this podcast Zeynep Salman, Head of Risk Decisioning, EMEA at SAS, will explore the top trends and market practices for financial institutions as they adapt to digitizing credit decisioning. We will dive deeply into key success factors for establishing innovative credit customer journeys while achieving successful business outcomes that keep the lending business profitable. We will also discuss how a country's regulatory requirements and market dynamics can affect the transformation journey. Link from today's discussion can be found here: The Value of Credit Risk Transformations and the Role of AI   Speaker's  Bio Zeynep Salman is a credit risk professional with experience managing originations, customer management, and collections teams for consumer and small business portfolios. She joined SAS in 2022 and is currently leading risk decisioning advisory activities across EMEA. Zeynep is passionate about driving automation, seamless customer experiences, convergence of credit and fraud evaluations across customer lifecycle, AI-driven customer engagements, and working with clients to support near and long-term strategic roadmaps to drive value. Before joining SAS, Zeynep held key roles at financial institutions including Citibank, HSBC, Toyota Finance, and UniCredit, as well as software vendors such as FICO.   -----------------------   Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning.   About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS' award-winning capabilities in analytics, risk management, and other technology areas have helped customers across the globe solve their toughest and ever-evolving business problems. Its unrelenting commitment to innovation enables organizations across financial services to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. Through the latest developments in machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and optimization, SAS supports diverse environments and scales to meet changing needs. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk

Is it possible for financial institutions to offer on-demand, superior customer experiences while making risk decisions in near real-time in an increasingly digital and interconnected world? That is the question we'll explore in this podcast featuring Terisa Roberts, Global Solution Lead, Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS, and Bruce Erb, Director – Credit Risk Consulting, KPMG. Traditional financial institutions are encountering additional hurdles, including fierce competition from agile newcomers, new regulatory demands for operational resiliency, and increased technology risk. In an age of digital lending driven by artificial intelligence, what are modern financial institutions doing differently to remain agile and profitable while keeping costs in check? We'll delve into several strategies that financial institutions are adopting for risk-based decision-making to bolster their resilience in times of uncertainty.   Speakers   Terisa Roberts, Global Solution Lead, Risk Modeling and Decisioning, SAS Terisa Roberts is a risk management professional with 15 years of experience primarily in the financial services sector. She is currently a Director and Global Solution lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS. Terisa has an extensive background in risk modeling for retail and commercial portfolios including regulatory capital stress testing and IFRS9/CECL. She advises banks, other financial services providers, and regulators concerning innovations in Risk Modeling and Decisioning including artificial intelligence and machine learning. Teresa holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Informatics and lives in Sydney, Australia.   Bruce Erb, Director – Credit Risk Consulting, KPMG Bruce Erb has been a risk professional for over 23 years in both industry and consulting. At KPMG, he has supported financial services clients in a variety of risk programs and initiatives with a current focus on transformation of credit and risk governance operating and execution models leveraging alternative approaches including automation, advanced analytics, and cognitive technologies.    Bruce was the product owner and co-inventor of an audit investigation tool that leveraged digitization, automation, and cognitive components to augment the way risk professionals evaluate and score a commercial loan. He was a loan officer for more than nine years before joining KPMG.   -----------------------   Over the years, GARP and SAS have partnered to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. Now we present a series of podcasts focused on making financial risk-based decisions in light of the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence and machine learning.   About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS' award-winning capabilities in analytics, risk management, and other technology areas have helped customers across the globe solve their toughest and ever-evolving business problems. Its unrelenting commitment to innovation enables organizations across financial services to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. Through the latest developments in machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and optimization, SAS supports diverse environments and scales to meet changing needs. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk

Hear veteran risk manager, advisor and professor Clifford Rossi's perspective on recent turmoil in the banking system, on where risk management fell short, and the profession's readiness for future challenges. The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and subsequent events inevitably invited comparisons with past crises. It was widely assumed that the damages of 2023 would be more contained than those of the Great Financial Crisis of 2008. But they could similarly leave a long tail, with economic and regulatory repercussions well into the future. A clear parallel between 2008 and 2023 is the spotlight placed on risk management. In the intervening years, the risk function in banking and financial services grew in prestige and responsibility – and its failings were documented as having played a role in SVB's demise. Drawing from regulatory experience early in his career, to senior risk and credit positions at major financial institutions, to his current professorship at the University of Maryland, Cliff Rossi has lived through multiple crises while observing the effectiveness and evolution of risk management. GARP Risk Intelligence's CRO Outlook columnist, Rossi has been especially critical of boards of directors' risk governance, one of many timely subjects covered in his podcast conversation with GARP contributing editor Jeff Kutler. SPEAKER'S BIO Clifford Rossi (PhD) is an Executive-in-Residence and Professor of the Practice at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. He is also the author of GARP's monthly “CRO Outlook” column. Prior to entering academia, Rossi had nearly 25 years of experience in banking and government, having held senior executive roles in risk management at several of the largest financial services companies. His most recent position was Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer for Citigroup's Consumer Lending Group, where he was responsible for overseeing the risk of a $300+B global portfolio of mortgage, home equity, student loans and auto loans with 700 employees under his direction. While there he was intimately involved in Citi's TARP and stress test activities. He also served as Chief Credit Officer at Washington Mutual (WaMu) and as Managing Director and Chief Risk Officer at Countrywide Bank. Previous to these assignments, Rossi held senior risk management positions at Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. He started his career during the thrift crisis at the U.S. Treasury's Office of Domestic Finance and later at the Office of Thrift Supervision working on key policy issues affecting depositories. Rossi was also an adjunct professor in the Finance Department at the Robert H. Smith School of Business for eight years and has numerous academic and nonacademic articles on banking industry topics. Rossi is frequently quoted on financial policy issues in major newspapers and has appeared on such programs as C-SPAN's Washington Journal and CNN's Situation Room. His book for risk practitioners and graduate students, A Risk Professional's Survival Guide, was published in 2014 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. His research interests are in financial and nonfinancial risk management, risk governance and analytics and climate risk.

Hear from Dr. Donald van Deventer, Managing Director--Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions at SAS, and Professor Robert Jarrow of Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business as we continue our discussion of the current banking climate as it relates to integrated balance sheet management — and specifically asset and liability management (ALM). This special two-part podcast series will explore conditions under which a bank is at risk of a “run” by looking internally at their assets and liabilities. We will also consider how to model simulations to project when assets will become negative relative to liabilities and determine how to ensure resiliency within financial institutions. Part 1 of this series will tackle the following topics: Introduction to deposit models for FDIC insurance How to handle hedging and mismatched balance sheets Determining what analytical methods are essential to "doing it right"  An introduction to non-maturity demand deposit runoff that will be a key component for part 2 of this series   Speaker Bios Dr. Donald van Deventer, Managing Director--Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions @ SAS He joined the Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions group at SAS Institute, Inc. in June 2022 through SAS' acquisition of his previous firm, the Kamakura Corporation. He founded Kamakura in 1990 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition. Dr. van Deventer's emphasis at SAS Institute, Inc. is enterprise-wide risk management and modern credit risk technology. His primary financial consulting and research interests involve the practical application of leading-edge financial theory to solve critical financial risk management challenges.   Robert Jarrow is the Ronald P. and Susan E. Lynch Professor of Investment Management at Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business. He is a co-creator of the Heath-Jarrow-Morton (HJM) model, the reduced form credit risk model, and the forward price martingale measure, the standards for pricing and hedging derivatives at major financial institutions. Jarrow is a pioneer of arbitrage-pricing theory and has written seven textbooks and over 225 pieces for academic journals. Jarrow is on the advisory board of numerous academic journals including the Frontiers of Mathematical Finance. His research has won many awards, and he was named IAFE Financial Engineer of the Year in 1997. Jarrow is in the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame, Risk Magazine's 50-member Hall of Fame, is listed in the Who's Who of Economics, and received Risk Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. He is currently an IAFE senior fellow and serves on various industry advisory boards.   Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. This time, we are partnering on a brand-new podcast, Risk and Resiliency to take a closer look at ways to face the challenges ahead, to be more agile, vigilant, and quickly adapt to shifting market conditions.  About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS' award-winning capabilities in analytics, risk management, and other technology areas have helped customers across the globe solve their toughest and ever-evolving business problems. Its unrelenting commitment to innovation enables organizations across financial services to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. Through the latest developments in machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and optimization, SAS supports diverse environments and scales to meet changing needs. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk

Welcome back for the conclusion of this special two-part podcast series featuring Dr. Donald van Deventer, Managing Director--Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions at SAS, and Professor Robert Jarrow of Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business. We continue the discussion of the current banking climate as it relates to integrated balance sheet management — and specifically asset and liability management (ALM). Part two of this series will tackle the following topics: A further exploration of non-maturity demand deposit runoff Deeper understanding of the estimated default probabilities for a bank that funds investments in Treasury securities with deposits Examples of how those default probabilities vary by maturity and the bank's initial capital position Tangible actions for aligning your balance sheet and optimizing your risk profile    Speaker Bios Dr. Donald van Deventer, Managing Director--Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions @ SAS He joined the Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions group at SAS Institute, Inc. in June 2022 through SAS' acquisition of his previous firm, the Kamakura Corporation. He founded Kamakura in 1990 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition. Dr. van Deventer's emphasis at SAS Institute, Inc. is enterprise-wide risk management and modern credit risk technology. His primary financial consulting and research interests involve the practical application of leading-edge financial theory to solve critical financial risk management challenges.   Robert Jarrow is the Ronald P. and Susan E. Lynch Professor of Investment Management at Cornell University's SC Johnson College of Business. He is a co-creator of the Heath-Jarrow-Morton (HJM) model, the reduced form credit risk model, and the forward price martingale measure, the standards for pricing and hedging derivatives at major financial institutions. Jarrow is a pioneer of arbitrage-pricing theory and has written seven textbooks and over 225 pieces for academic journals. Jarrow is on the advisory board of numerous academic journals including the Frontiers of Mathematical Finance. His research has won many awards, and he was named IAFE Financial Engineer of the Year in 1997. Jarrow is in the Fixed Income Analysts Society Hall of Fame, Risk Magazine's 50-member Hall of Fame, is listed in the Who's Who of Economics, and received Risk Magazine's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2009. He is currently an IAFE senior fellow and serves on various industry advisory boards.   Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. This time, we are partnering on a brand-new podcast, Risk and Resiliency to take a closer look at ways to face the challenges ahead, to be more agile, vigilant, and quickly adapt to shifting market conditions.  About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS' award-winning capabilities in analytics, risk management, and other technology areas have helped customers across the globe solve their toughest and ever-evolving business problems. Its unrelenting commitment to innovation enables organizations across financial services to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. Through the latest developments in machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and optimization, SAS supports diverse environments and scales to meet changing needs. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk

Hear from risk modeling expert Tony Hughes about the parts various risk management techniques played in recent bank failures, as well as the current challenges facing modelers. Risk models have grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons over the past couple of years, and now they are in the news again thanks to the sudden collapses of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank. People want to know why the internal risk models at these banks did not properly account for interest-rate risk and why they seemed completely unprepared when their depositors made a mad dash for the exits. The failures have also raised thought-provoking questions about liquidity risk management deficiencies, the proper use of stress testing, risk governance problems, and the flaws in current bank regulation. What's more, these issues are being raised at a time when modelers are contending with other significant challenges, such as forecasting for expected credit losses during a time of great uncertainty. Risk modeling maestro Tony Hughes, Risk Intelligence's “Risk Weighted” columnist, joins GARP editorial director Robert Sales to discuss some of the hottest FRM issues of today.   Speaker's Bio: Tony Hughes is a risk modeling and ESG expert. He has more than 20 years of experience as a senior risk professional in North America, Europe and Australia, specializing in model risk management, model build/validation and quantitative climate risk solutions.

Hear risk management prognostications from Cris deRitis, the deputy chief economist at Moody's Analytics. Risk managers have been severely tested over the past 12 months. Rising interest rates, supply-chain problems, inflation and heightened geopolitical risk contributed to an environment of volatility and uncertainty, and many financial institutions grabbed headlines for all of the wrong reasons. Operational risk disasters, for example, have cost large banks hundreds of millions of dollars. Credit risk modelers, meanwhile, are still trying to figure out the best path forward after wrongly forecasting a wave of defaults amid the pandemic. The financial sector was also hit hard by data breaches that exposed cybersecurity flaws, while cryptocurrencies, highlighted by the collapse of FTX, experienced a host of failures as part of the so-called “crypto winter.” Last but certainly not least, we've witnessed the expansion of artificial intelligence in financial risk management, though concerns about explainability, bias and transparency remain. How will the remainder of 2023 of shake out? What regulatory changes may be on the horizon, and which trends will have the greatest impact? Cris deRitis, the deputy chief economist at Moody's Analytics, speaks with GARP editorial director Robert Sales about what lies ahead for risk managers.   Speaker's Bio: Cristian deRitis is the Deputy Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics. As the head of model research and development, he specializes in the analysis of current and future economic conditions, consumer credit markets and housing. Before joining Moody's Analytics, he worked for Fannie Mae. In addition to his published research, Cristian is named on two U.S. patents for credit modeling techniques. He can be reached at cristian.deritis@moodys.com.

Hear from Dr. Donald van Deventer, Managing Director--Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions @ SAS, as we discuss the impact of current market trends on asset liability management With a possible recession looming and inflation near its highest levels since the 1980s, navigating around balance sheet issues remains complex. In this first of a series of podcasts on asset and liability management (ALM) featuring academic and industry experts, we will tackle the following topics: ·         The current regulatory and marketplace-driven challenges for risk analytics ·         How to handle term structure modeling in times of rising interest rates and inverted yield curves ·         Requirements for quantitative approaches in ALM in the current environment Speaker Bio Dr. Donald van Deventer, Managing Director--Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions @ SAS Dr. Donald van Deventer joined the Risk Research and Quantitative Solutions group at SAS Institute, Inc. in June 2022 through SAS' acquisition of his previous firm, the Kamakura Corporation. He founded Kamakura in 1990 and served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer until the acquisition. Dr. van Deventer's emphasis at SAS Institute, Inc. is enterprise-wide risk management and modern credit risk technology. His primary financial consulting and research interests involve the practical application of leading-edge financial theory to solve critical financial risk management challenges. Over the years, GARP and SAS have worked together to bring risk practitioners unique insights on a variety of topics related to risk management. This time, we are partnering on a brand-new podcast, Risk and Resiliency to take a closer look at ways to face the challenges ahead, to be more agile, vigilant, and quickly adapt to shifting market conditions.   About SAS As a leader in analytics, SAS' award-winning capabilities in analytics, risk management, and other technology areas have helped customers across the globe solve their toughest and ever-evolving business problems. Its unrelenting commitment to innovation enables organizations across financial services to modernize and sustain a competitive edge. Through the latest developments in machine learning, natural language processing, forecasting, and optimization, SAS supports diverse environments and scales to meet changing needs. Learn more about how SAS is driving innovation and business value for risk and finance professionals at www.sas.com/risk  

Hear from Alla Gil, the co-founder and CEO of Straterix, as we examine the liquidity risk challenges and trends that have been fueled by extremely rare market conditions. In a recent survey conducted by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, 80% of economists named stagflation – or a combination of high inflation and stagnant growth – as the greatest long-term risk to the U.S. economy. The economists said that stagflation presents an even bigger threat than a 2023 recession, and this news has undoubtedly added to the consternation currently felt by liquidity risk managers. We haven't seen a true period of stagflation in the U.S. since the oil crisis of the 1970s, and its therefore very difficult to factor this anomalous macroeconomic risk into contemporary liquidity risk models. Alla Gil joins GARP editorial director Robert Sales to discuss the impact of stagflation and the steps risk practitioners responsible for modeling and managing liquidity risk can take to ensure that they have enough cash on hand, both now and in the future?   SPEAKER's BIO: Alla Gil is CEO and co-founder of Straterix Inc. With an academic background in theoretical mathematics, she began her Wall Street career at Goldman Sachs, working on stochastic models for derivative pricing. While heading Global Strategic Advisory teams at Citigroup, Nomura - and again at Goldman Sachs - she introduced stochastic modelling and an optimization approach to the world of corporate finance. Over a 20-year period, Alla advised banks, sovereign treasuries, insurance companies, asset managers, and pension funds on ALM, stress testing, long-term risk projections, liquidity, optimal capital allocation and balance sheet optimization With Straterix, she has developed a methodology and tools that enable clients to automate the process of scenario creation and expansion to assist in strategic capital planning and optimization, as well as risk management and stress testing.

Hear from Prof. Clifford Rossi as we examine some of today's biggest financial risk modeling challenges. Risk modelers have recently been befuddled by rare and powerful non-financial events, including the pandemic, geopolitical conflicts, radical weather happenings, and a supply-chain crisis. What are the characteristics and impacts of these unpredictable incidents? In this podcast, University of Maryland professor and GARP CRO Outlook columnist Clifford Rossi will address these issues, and also share his views on how financial institutions can better understand these risks and link them properly to financial losses.

In the financial services industry, risks related to climate change are now considered major, resulting in all firms assessing how to incorporate climate risk in financial decision making. As we find ourselves in the decisive decade, there is an urgency for financial services to not only better manage the financial and non-financial risks of climate change but also lead the way in sustainable finance. The scale and complexity of the problem demand new thinking and new technologies that will integrate well with existing risk management ecosystems. In this episode, we'll explore how AI and advanced analytics can help assess and address climate risk, while keeping the business lights on. This episode concludes a four-part series examining Responsible AI. Listen to the previous episodes here: Part One: Alternative Data in Risk Modeling Part Two: Explainable/Interpretable AI Part Three: Addressing Bias and Fairness in AI Systems   Learn More: From Crisis to Opportunity: Redefining Risk Management | SAS   Speakers Mark Nasila, Chief Data and Analytics Officer, FirstRand Risk Dr. Mark Nasila is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer of FirstRand Risk, a Singularity University Faculty. He is also a steering committee member of the National Institute for Theoretical Physics and Computational Sciences (NITheCS). As an experienced AI and data science expert, he ensures the techniques and methodologies he introduces into FNB are at the forefront of where banking is headed, both locally and internationally. He is the developer and the brain behind Manila, an AI system FNB has harnessed to reimagine its risk management and forensic due diligence processes. He holds a PhD in Mathematical Statistics from the Nelson Mandela University, and is also an alumni of the SingularityU South Africa Executive programme. He was named one of the Corinium Global Intelligence “2020 Global Top 100 Innovators in data and analytics.”   Terisa Roberts, Global Solution Lead, Risk Modeling and Decisioning, SAS Terisa Roberts is a well-rounded risk management professional with 15 years of risk management experience working predominantly in the financial services sector. She is currently a Director and Global Solution lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS. She has extensive experience in risk modeling topics for retail and commercial portfolios including regulatory capital stress testing and IFRS9/CECL. She advises banks other financial services providers as well as regulators on innovations in Risk Modeling and Decisioning including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. She holds a Ph.D. in Operations Research and Informatics and lives in Sydney, Australia with her family. ----------------------- 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 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.

In this episode, we will continue with part three of a four-part series looking at Responsible AI (Listen to part one: Alternative Data in Risk Modeling and part two: Explainable/Interpretable AI). “Fairness in AI” is getting a lot of attention, especially related to credit decisioning, not only for onboarding but throughout the credit lifecycle. This episode explores the intersection of fairness and trust, demonstrates why defining - much less ensuring - fairness is more difficult than it sounds, and provides strategies organizations can use to enable fair and trustworthy AI. Learn More: From Crisis to Opportunity: Redefining Risk Management | SAS Speakers Preeti Shivpuri, Head of AI Strategy and Governance, Deloitte Canada Preeti Shivpuri is a leader in data and analytics strategy helping organizations effectively manage data and information assets to generate insights, elevate customer experience, drive growth and operational efficiency, while meeting evolving regulatory demands. She advises clients on execution strategies and sound governance, enabling them to realize benefits aligned to their business goals throughout their data insights journey. She leads Trustworthy AI and Ethics within Deloitte helping organizations to operationalize and scale AI solution responsibly with the right balance of innovation vs controls. Kimberly Nevala, Strategic Advisor, SAS  Kimberly Nevala is a Strategic Advisor at SAS. Kimberly provides counsel on the strategic value and real-world realities of emerging advanced analytics and information trends to companies worldwide. Kimberly is currently focused on demystifying the business potential and practical implications of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). ----------------------- 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.

In this episode, we will continue with part two of a four-part series looking at Responsible AI (Listen to part one: Alternative Data in Risk Modeling). One of the major challenges with effectively developing, deploying, and managing AI systems are often related to the “black box” nature of the model. Specifically, the complexity and non-linear nature of variables in some black-box AI models may be difficult to explain or understand. This includes explainability of the model logic as well as the individual decisions made by the model. In addition, the relative lack of transparency challenges model development and model validation teams to foresee unintended consequences from model usage, which could create an operational risk if the model is implemented in production. Speakers Iain Brown, Ph.D., Head of Data Science, SAS UK&I Matthew Jones, Ph.D., Head of Retail Decision Modelling, Risk Community, Nationwide Building Society Moderator: Lisa Ponti, Ph.D., Vice President, Educational Outreach, Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) ----------------------- 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.

In this episode, we begin a four part series looking at Responsible AI by looking at Alternative Data in risk Modeling. Over the course of the coming months we will also look at Explainable / Interpretable AI, Fairness and Bias in AI, and the new frontier of climate models.  We will conclude the series with a wraps up webcast in January of 2022 - click here to register. Survey Says: Risk management key to resiliency in 2021 and beyond; click her to learn more and read the full report. To view GARP's DE&I webcast, "Risk Modeling to Further Diversity and Inclusion", mentioned in this episode - click here.  Speaker Bio Terisa Roberts is a well-rounded risk management professional with 15 years of risk management experience, working predominantly in the financial services sector. She is currently a Director and Global Solution lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS. She has extensive experience in risk modeling topics for retail and commercial portfolios including regulatory capital, stress testing and IFRS9/CECL. She advises banks, other financial services providers as well as regulators on innovations in Risk Modeling and Decisioning including Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. She holds a Ph. D in Operations Research and Informatics and lives in Sydney, Australia with her family. ----------------------- 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.

Many companies are considering their de-risking options and strategies for pension risk transfer (PRT). PRT is steadily increasing in the U.S. but comes with a high-level liability. Today we speak with Sarvesh Soi, Principal, Wealth Practice at Buck to get insight on the latest strategies around pension de-risking.   Speaker Bio: Sarvesh Soi, FCA, EA, CFA | Principal, Wealth practice, Buck Sarvesh serves as the head of the Financial Risk Management group at Buck. He is a seasoned actuary with 19 years of broad and diverse experience in pensions and investments. In recent years, his primary focus has been developing, implementing, and monitoring liability driven investment solutions for defined benefit pension plan sponsors. Sarvesh graduated with a bachelor's degree in actuarial mathematics from the University of Michigan and is an Enrolled Actuary (EA), CFA Charterholder, and a Fellow of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries (FCA).    Please note that in discussing pension policies during COVID, Mr. Soi intended to say “withdrawal funds” and not “borrow funds.”   To view the video referenced in the discussion, click here.    

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   

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. 

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.

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.

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.    

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.     

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.     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.

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. 

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).

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.

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.  

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.

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.

**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 

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.  

Companies looking to expand globally might be hesitant to tap into new markets given how the business environment has changed so dramatically as a result of the pandemic. This moment in time is an inflection point for businesses to redefine their approach and strategy for global growth and a time to transform their old ways of doing such things as workforce planning, hiring. As CEO and co-founder of Velocity Global, Ben Wright helps companies to place the "new normal" in context for business that want to expand globally in today’s climate and while staying agile and controlling risk.  

Today’s chief risk officers must not only contend with the economic impact and shock of the pandemic but also manage complex challenges like racial violence, climate change, geo-political change and global supply-chain failure.  Robert Sales, GARP’s Editorial Director, speaks with Brenda Boultwood, former senior vice president and chief risk officer at Constellation Energy, and who has served as a board member at both the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) and GARP,  about what issues top risk executives should be prioritizing, and how standard risk management techniques help firms reinvent themselves and find timely answers to risk quandaries.   For more from Brenda on this topic, click here for her CRO Outlook Column in GARP’s Risk Intelligence area.   Speaker Bio   Brenda Boultwood is an independent risk management consultant. She is the former senior vice president and chief risk officer at Constellation Energy, and has served as a board member at both the Committee of Chief Risk Officers (CCRO) and GARP. Previously, she was a senior vice president of industry solutions at MetricStream, where she was responsible for a portfolio of key industry verticals, including energy and utilities, federal agencies, strategic banking and financial services. Before that, she worked in a number of risk management, business roles and as the global head of strategy, Alternative Investment Services, at JPMorgan Chase, where she developed the strategy for the company's hedge fund services, private equity fund services, leveraged loan services and global derivative services. She currently serves on the board of directors at the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation.

The COVID-19 pandemic underscores the importance of environmental and social risk factors, as well as strong governance. Business structures are changing to become more resilient and sustainable, leading to a greater focus on G and S as companies align purpose with profits. In this podcast, Elena Philipova, Global Head of ESG Proposition at Refinitiv, discusses the primary gaps the current crisis has revealed and how incorporating ESG factors can mitigate risk.   For further insights from Refiitiv, tune into the Refinitiv Sustainability Perspectives podcast.   Speaker Bio Elena Philipova, Global Head ESG Proposition, Refinitiv Elena is the Global Head ESG Proposition at Refinitiv, formerly the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters. She is responsible for the end-to-end management of the ESG business, products and services. Elena is the Rapporteur for the Benchmarks group of the EU Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance appointed by the European Commission. Previously, Elena was Head of Company Content Management at Thomson Reuters, where she led the Global Investing and Advisory Content Management Team. Other previous roles at Thomson Reuters include Content Specialist Manager, Content Proposition Manager and Head Data Quality. Elena worked as Senior ESG Analyst at ASSET4, the ESG data provider acquired by Thomson Reuters in 2009, and started her career as Research Analyst at Morgan Stanley. Elena holds an MBA and BA in Finance and International business from Stetson University.        

Shutting down the global economy in the age of Covid-19 was tough. Reopening is proving even harder. How should organizations continue operating in this new normal? What are best practices and lessons learned from past outbreaks including SARS, MERS, H1N1, H5N1, Zika, and Ebola, and other hazards. In this podcast, Chloe Demrovsky, President & CEO of the Disaster Recovery Institute, explores the ways in which professionals can better prepare for and respond to the next crisis. Disaster Recovery Institute is a leading global nonprofit that helps governments, Fortune 500 companies and financial and other institutions around the world prepare for and recover from disasters by providing education, accreditation, and thought leadership in business continuity, disaster recovery, cyber resilience and other areas. Speaker Bio Chloe Demrovsky is the President and CEO of Disaster Recovery Institute International, the oldest and largest nonprofit that helps organizations around the world prepare for and recover from disasters by providing education, accreditation, and thought leadership in business continuity, disaster recovery, cyber resilience and related fields. Founded in 1988, DRI has certified 15,000+ resilience professionals in 100+ countries and at 95 percent of Fortune 100 companies. She previously served for three years as Executive Director during which time she led DRI to a record number of certified professionals with a 42% increase and oversaw the launch of a number of valuable initiatives including the DRI Online Library, the Collegiate Conference Program, the DRI Webinar Program, the Future Vision Thinktank, a new risk management training and certification program, the launch of DRI’s premier organizational certification, and the most substantive revision of DRI’s core training program in the history of the organization. During her tenure, DRI’s conference reached a record level of attendance and the organization launched a series of new committees dedicated to better serving the industry’s diverse needs including Women in Business Continuity, Young Leaders in Resilience, and the Veterans’ Outreach Program. She built the relationship with the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, is a Board Director for the DRI Foundation, and a Certified Business Continuity Vendor (CBCV). She is a senior Forbes contributor, has authored numerous articles, appeared on Bloomberg TV, MSNBC and Fox, and has served as an expert source for The Associated Press, USA Today, LA Times, Conde Nast Traveler, ABC News, and more. She has presented at dozens of events across four continents and conducted on-site briefings for government officials, government bodies including the European Commission and international organizations as well as for visiting delegations. She is a Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities Subject Matter Advisor and served as an editor for the 2017 version of The Professional Practices for Business Continuity Management, the coordinator for the first International Glossary for Resiliency and the International Editor for Thrive International Blog and Thrive Iberoamerica, DRI’s Spanish-language publication.

Continuing our theme from the last episode of the COVID series, in this special episode of the Climate Risk Podcast Series, host and Co-president of the GARP Risk Institute, Jo Paisley, is again joined by John Scott, Head of Sustainability Risk for the Zurich Insurance Group. Having briefly touched on some of the interconnections that exist between climate change and the ongoing COIVID-19 crisis in the previous episode, John has kindly returned to talk in more depth about this timely subject.   The episode addresses three key questions: Why does climate change make the occurrence of future pandemics more likely? Why would climate change worsen the impacts of a pandemic, whilst making the response harder? Why is this important for risk professionals and what is their role moving forward?   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