International Risk Management projects focus on managing fidelity bond risks (burglary, robbery, forgery and fraudulent deposits, embezzlement and internal dishonesty, external frauds and scams, etc.) along with Property Casualty (P&C) risks insured directly or indirectly by CUNA Mutual. 

CUNA Mutual' Risk Management budgets adhere to the same four phase allocation scheme used by the US Departments of Emergency Government and Homeland Security. In phase I budgets focused on making sure credit unions had appropriate security equipment in place based on the amount of currency stored during non-business hours. In phase II they focused on hiring qualified Risk Management personnel at CUNA Mutual and a cadre of on-site Credit Union Risk Managers in every bonded credit union. In phase III, budgets focused on training the UK Risk Management cadre. Finally, in phase IV budgets are focusing on continuing educations for Credit Union Risk Managers, creating public to private partnerships at the chapter and regional level, designing cost effective tools to accelerate the RM process, and launching a CUNA Mutual' Incident Command and Control system that will ready the credit union movement for the next terrorist' attack, natural disaster or pandemic. 

CUNA Mutual's Risk Management projects in the UK are managed by Steve Finnigan, a retired law enforcement officer and active credit union volunteer with years of experience at every level of the world credit union movement. Working with Gordon Bacon, Steve has lead the charge to organize Credit Union Risk Managers throughout Scotland, England, Wales, and Ireland. Steve customized and is currently conducting on-site fidelity bond risk analysis, regional RM workshops, writing risk specific RM brochures, and sharing his RM expertise at credit union conferences across the UK. Steve's global perspective of credit union risks equips him well to prepare credit unions before, train them to respond during, and help them recover after any natural disaster, terrorist' attack, or pandemic. After benchmarking our programs, Steve will make appropriate course corrections and once again lead the RM charge through 2007.

 

The RM Project Workbook - 2007 Edition will be used throughout the week. Click on...   and place it in your on-line favorites. We will use the workbook to benchmark, update data sheets, train in the latest RM methods, introduce the CU-ICS to the UK credit union movement, and write our mission statements and strategic action plans for 2007!

Following is a general guide for the week. For agenda updates go to...

Table of Contents - Use Ctrl and click to navigate this document: Our mission statement for the week!   Our agenda at a glance!  Our travel work plan for the week! We consider this a team building exercise! We'll evaluate our written reports! We'll update our data sheets! We'll survey our team members and benchmark our RM programs and projects! We'll explore new ways to survey our customers! We'll take Advanced RM training and develop new RM research techniques! We'll audit the RM workshops from CUNA Management School! And we'll end the week writing our mission statement and strategic action plans for 2007!

If you've not already done so, please complete the team survey of RM skills. Considering the speed at which new security systems and protocols are being introduced, there is no way any of us can know it all. Asking everyone to complete a survey helps us identify our need for cross training. I've added an "invitee #1 and #2" survey in case you know of someone else in our CUNA Mutual family who should be involved in benchmarking.

Suggested Study & Reading Assignments:

Before our benchmarking week, I recommend you study the following:

Needless to say, your first stop when learning about the latest in Risk Management and the "tools of transfer should be to visit CUNA Mutual's web site and check out their on-line courses and RM resources. Just click on the CUNA Mutual logo's throughout this document and our R&D sites.

Check out the ABCUL search engine. I'm creating an excel spread sheet approach to monitoring our risk exposures and concentrations. It's driven by zip/postal codes, asset size, and could be by "field of membership." It would be great if we could use their same soft ware.  Let's discuss this!

Let's consider visiting the Association of British Credit Union League (ABCUL) site monthly to read risk specific articles. For example, click here (http://www.abcul.org/page/news.cfm) and read the articles on money laundering. Also use their "credit union search" feature to learn what's going on at our credit unions. For example, what member services are they offering that increase their risk of robbery, burglary, forgery, and fraud.

Katrina was a rude awakening for the US credit union movement. Since than there has been a major push to form branch banking networks in the US gulf before the next hurricane season.  Click here and become familiar with how credit unions plan to manage liquidity risks during the next mass housing-in-place or evacuation. Our RM goal is to develop a similar liquidity management plan where ever CUNA Mutual has an exposure concentration.  

To more effectively manage CUNA Mutual risks (burglary, robbery, embezzlement, etc.) that are concentrated for example in London, we need to take advantage of internet technology. I recommend you learn how to use "Google" and other search engines. For example a google of credit union robberies in Birmingham England lead me to this international crime information site (Click here). I recommend you become familiar with doing on-line RM research of fidelity bond risks in the UK to include doing your electronic crime reverse tracking of zip codes, postal codes, area codes, and addresses. Click here to use my R&D center.  Click on any of our or icons to enter. You are also welcome to click on any or icons to read risk specific white papers. For example, I suggest you read my white paper on "Maslow's" hierarchy of needs because it underscores the benefits our RM programs bring to not only our credit union customers but their field of membership and chapters. The primary RM mission of both the financial and insurance industries is to manage risks before and indemnify our customers after any insured loss. In my opinion CUNA Mutual has a distinct market advantage because it was born out of the credit union's movement and shares the "people helping people" phylosophy, and being true to its charter, the "not for profit, not for charity, but for service" business ethic. It is precisely because of this market position that CUNA Mutual is poised to safeguard the international movement and bond them into an internationally supported public-to-private partnership with Credit Union' Risk Managers from around the world. 

We will be discussing all fidelity bond risks, electronic crime risks, associated P&C risks during our benchmarking week but also identifying new markets and potential new CUNA Mutual products needed in the UK. For example, following the LP/LS strategy we used to stabilize the US economy in the 30's and 40' I think we could do much to stabilize the economic plight of victims during a mass evacuation. Knowing that extra expenses are a function of supply and demand, I see an RM strategy to not only spread risk over a tri chapter area but from an RM perspective have pre positioned recovery resources and pre-planned liquidity management tools and claims handling procedures.

Electronic crime to include scams, extortion, fraudulent deposits, and bogus claims escalated during Katrina. I suggest you become familiar with www.fraudwatchinternational.com. We will be using this site to update our electronic crime fighting skills. I'll bring a power point presentation we can customize for the UK. Some other sites you might want to visit include:

There are a number of great RM resources in the UK. John Hamilton suggested we check out The Association of Irish Risk Management at http://www.airm.ie/  I encourage everyone to keep your eyes open for others we can use to focus our RM efforts. The more we look to local resources the better as they tend to be specific to risks in their country.

The Departments of Homeland Security and Emergency Government as well as internationally recognized security associations such as ASIS International and InfraGard all recommend forming first response "public-to-private" partnerships that speak the same language (NIMS) and follow the same incident management protocols. This is why I've adopted the Incident Command and Control System to the financial institutions and insurance industries. The Incident Command System (ICS) is required training for all US law enforcement, fire departments,. and emergency government personnel. I recommend you become familiar with our InfraGuard's web site (Click here). I'm a member and will help anyone interested in becoming a member. We'll discuss this during our training.

To get some idea of where RM programs will be going in 2007, read the introduction, look at the table of contents, and study chapter #3 page 27 of the National Pandemic Response document (click here). This will give you an RM perspective on the impact a pandemic might have on the insurance and financial industries. It's the same impact a large scale disaster will have or another terrorist attack in the UK. The CDC suggests industries plan to function with 40% or less personnel for up to a year. I see this as a real threat to credit unions with a closed field of membership such as those representing law enforcement, fire fighters, schools, and hospitals.

Credit unions and banks in the UK face growing threats. I found this of interest. Click here or use this direct link..http://business.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1732352006

The credit union movement in the Caribbean and CUNA Mutual personnel launched a response following the "Credit Union Incident Command System" during Hurricane Ivan in 2005. Please read my summary of our accomplishments paying special attention to the role CUNA Mutual Account Representatives and Claims personnel played reporting to the Chief of Finance. (Click here).

One of my objectives in 2007 is to consolidate our fidelity bond RM program with our Property/Casualty RM projects. I hope to have an RM white paper on this posted before my plan lands in Birmingham on December 10.

For another example of using the ICS at the credit union, chapter, and league level, (click here) and study "Operation Bucket Brigade" I ran this summer in Egg Harbor and "Operation Concealed Carry" in Sister Bay. Both taught the business community, to include banks and credit union in a tri-county area (an area equal to the Brown/Door County Chapter of Credit Unions) the internal, audit, collection, burglary, robbery, and fraud controls we teach our credit unions. Note, we also taught them how to set up and manage surveillance system, transport currency, and track an armed robber and scam artist known to be in the area. Read especially the reports from the Chief of Finance as we had local insurance company representatives pre-planning how they'd settle claims. 

Our RM strategic plan for 2007 will focus on managing fidelity bond risks that once were measured by frequency but now must be measured by potential severity. To accomplish this, we will group our insured credit unions by zip or postal code, much like we do when we provide flood or crop insurance. Within each group, we'll identify the best "physical" storage facility credit union might use during a crisis and we'll teach Credit Union Risk Managers what to do to spread and protect insured property before evacuating. Click here for a copy of the evacuee' instructions we sent to US credit unions during Katrina, the wildfires this summer, and the gas explosions which resulted in the evacuation of a tourist community leaving three banks and one credit union the primary targets of an escaped armed robber.

Some of our RM efforts will involve managing risk and exposure concentrations. I've posted excerpts from a white paper I wrote on the concentration of risks in South Korea, Europe, and the US.  Click here for a short excerpt. 

You may not have time, but if you'd like to see some of what I taught this summer at CUNA Management school, you're welcome to use the links below. I think the links to the class survey results are still posted.

2nd Year Students Get Set... Click here to enter our RM Centers

3rd Year Students Go... Click here to enter Advanced RM Individual Training (AIT)

So were do we go from here? Finding answers to that question is what this week is all about. Studies of insurance and bond claims after a terrorist attacks, natural disasters, violent robberies, burglaries, extortions, decade old embezzlements, or internet scams indicate our RM mission has just begun. Katrina taught us to beware of declining loss ratios. While they might tell us we're doing our job, Mother Nature can wipe out our good work in a heart beat. Declining loss ratios also make our customers apathetic and raise their expectations for faster, more focused RM support and claims handling assistance.

This week will help us learn what we're doing well and what needs to be done better. Steve and I look forward to our annual benchmarking as it helps ensure we'll stay one step ahead of the criminals and 10 steps ahead of CUNA Mutual's competition.       Rich Woldt & Steve Finnigan

Who knows what's on our horizons?