***Risk Certification - Why Should You Bother?

By George Lekatis
The official guide to Risk Management

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I have been leading classes around the world for many years, and there is one question that has to be answered in each and every class:

Why should I get certified in risk and compliance management? Why should I spend time and money?

Certified professionals are not necessarily better, or even good professionals. They do not automatically become better performers. There is no guarantee that they will do more for their organization, the clients and their colleagues.

But, after the recent corporate failures and during the current market crisis, both professionals and firms have realized that certificates in risk and compliance management are not only necessary, but also can be mandated by laws and regulations.

Certification programs cost money, but boost income as well. Fortunately, there are excellent distance learning and online certification programs at a very reasonable cost. Although an instructor led class has a lot of benefits, distance learning programs can also deliver what they promise.

Risk certification - Benefits for professionals

1. A lot of corporate officers have lost their jobs. In order to find a new good job, they have to be flexible and to meet the demands of the marketplace. The marketplace is clearly demanding qualified professionals in risk and compliance management.

2. Certified professionals enjoy industry recognition, have more and better job opportunities, secure the best jobs, and make more money. They are more satisfied as they enjoy much more benefits for spending their time for somebody else.

Risk certification - Benefits for organizations

1. Companies and organizations understand that they cannot ignore the risk management principles; they cannot afford to employ persons that are not qualified.

2. Not learning a lesson or two from what has happened in the market during the current crisis, looks like gross negligence. Shareholders can take legal action against senior management and the board of directors of firms that do not ensure that best practices and international standards are followed.

3. Organizations need assurance that employees have the knowledge and skills to mitigate risks and to accept more responsibility.

4. Supervisors and external auditors ask for independent evidence that the process owners are qualified, and that the controls can operate as designed, because the persons responsible for these controls have the necessary knowledge.

Firms and organizations have the legal obligation to ensure that all persons who effectively run the undertaking or have other key functions (risk management, compliance management, internal audit) meet at all times the fit and proper requirements:

(a) Their professional qualifications, knowledge and experience are adequate to enable sound and prudent management (fit);

(b) They are of good repute and integrity (proper).

Firms and organizations must often notify their supervisory authorities of any changes to the identity of the persons who effectively run the undertaking or are responsible for other key functions, along with all information needed to assess whether any new persons appointed to manage risks in the undertaking are fit and proper.

Firms and organizations often must notify their supervisory authorities if employees have been replaced because they no longer fulfill the obligation to be fit and proper.

In order to ensure that employees have the professional qualifications, knowledge and experience necessary to competently discharge their responsibilities, the undertakings need to have in place appropriate documented policies and processes for assessing fitness and propriety.

I always ask a simple question: Would you hire risk managers or compliance officers that have no evidence that they are qualified?