The Fundamentals of Operational Risk for Insurers

Cathy Hampson and Gus Ortega

Cathy Hampson is a management consultant, currently engaged in using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in the field of financial services’ regulatory compliance. She regularly lectures and trains groups on a variety of business topics, including organisational behaviour, and has over 30 years of experience in financial services: investment banking, asset management, and insurance. Hampson has designed, project-managed and implemented Compliance and Risk Departments and systems in companies such as AIG, Morgan Stanley, Barclays Global Investors, Chase Manhattan, Mars and the London Stock Exchange. Hampson has headed Operational Risk Departments globally and operated firm reporting across global platforms. Her diverse roles in compliance, risk, securities lending trading, operations, IT, finance and project management provide knowledge of a company’s overall operations as well as an understanding of the behavioural aspects of interdepartmental differences. Her interests in psychology, risk and coaching led to the publication of her book An Introduction to Behavioural Risk (Risk Books 2015). Hampson graduated with first-class honours in fuel and energy engineering/management studies from Leeds University, holds an executive MBA from the London Business School, is a Fellow of the Chartered Association of Certified Accountants and of the Institute of Operational Risk, and is a Member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. Hampson’s interests in governance led to her taking relevant extracurricular roles and training via the Financial Times’s Non-Executive Director Diploma, her current trustee role being at the Weald and Downland Living Museum in West Sussex.

Gus Ortega is a risk executive, currently in charge of the strategic planning, implementation and maintenance of AIG’s operational risk-management framework. In his current role and through partnership with second-line risk leaders and other control functions, Ortega is responsible for ensuring the adequate implementation of the ORM framework by providing function-specific expertise in order to execute effective oversight for risk identification, assessment, prioritisation, monitoring and mitigation processes. He is an active advocate for risk management and highly regarded in the financial-services industry through presentations at specialised risk conferences and known established financial institutions such as the World Bank in Washington, DC, Federal Reserve Bank of New York and the Central Bank of Brazil. He has more than 15 years’ experience in financial services: investment banking, wealth management and insurance. Ortega has worked in different capacities across all lines of defence, including fixed-income trading, enterprise risk management and internal auditing for large multinational financial institutions such as AIG, UBS Investment Bank, Morgan Stanley, Dresdner Bank and Lehman Brothers. Over the years, Ortega has led complex projects and strategic process initiatives, and has implemented risk-and-control frameworks for sales and trading operations, wealth management and advisory, finance and IT operations, and, most recently, insurance. His diverse background and global expertise with onsite working experience in Japan, Europe and North and South America has enabled Ortega to have a solid understanding of the international business landscape and global regulatory environment. Ortega has served in industry working groups, focusing on the evolution of the risk-management practices, including the Operational Risk Working Group of the CRO Forum in Europe, Operational Risk Working Group of the CRO Council in the US and the Operational Risk Exchange Association with focus on development of internal loss-data standards for insurers. He has been featured in Risk Insights magazine published by the Center for Financial Professionals and has been a knowledge partner for Risk Americas and the Americas New Generation Operational Risk Conference. Ortega holds an undergraduate degree in finance from the University of New Jersey City and an MBA from St Peter’s University specialising in International Business and Accountancy.

Chapter 1: Introduction

Chapter 2: The Financial Crisis of 2008 and Subsequent Market Changes

Chapter 3: The Business Case for Insurers to Adopt Operational Risk Management

Chapter 4: Insurance: It’s Products, Services and Business Operations

Chapter 5: Insurers' Operational Risk Governance and Framework

Chapter 6: Internal Risk Event and Loss Reporting

Chapter 7: External Loss Data

Chapter 8: Risk and Control Assessments

Chapter 9: Risk Indicators Chapter 10: Reporting and Analysis

Chapter 11: The Past, the Present and the Future of Operational Risk Modeling: Lourenco Miranda (Société Générale)

Chapter 12: The Insurance Landscape

Chapter 13: Three Lines of Defense

Chapter 14: Reputational Risk

Chapter 15: Conduct Risk

Chapter 16: Conclusions