NU Online News Service, June 23, 2:55 p.m. EDT

BERMUDA--In the current market, the top concern for risk managers is the economic slowdown, which means added scrutiny of any dollars spent, an expert related at an industry conference here.

"They must look at whether a solution is driven by compliance, or if it will bring additional revenue or return on cost investment, whether it's from safety, or loss prevention services to risk management," said Christopher Iovino, managing director, risk consulting, risk control and claims with AON Global in New York, addressing a seminar at the Bermuda Captive Conference.

He asked his audience to consider if risk managers "only have $1 to spend in their risk management budget, will it be for a new IT system, or to reduce legacy claims?"

He added that risk managers are turning over every stone to save money. He suggested that one way they can save is by examining recommendations made by insurers based on engineering.

"Although it's not necessarily top of mind, sometimes, when risk managers see the lists and recommendations, they intuitively feel, 'I need to do this because the insurance company is telling me to do so.'"

However, with a little more education and awareness, Mr. Iovino said, "they can stop the bus for a minute and truly analyze the size of the risk and how it impacts their program in the market going forward." They then can determine whether the same result can be achieved for less capital expenditure, he explained.

While this may seem simple, he said that often risk managers accept the recommendations, but that "whether it's a half-million or million-dollar sprinkler system improvement, sometimes there are options."

In another area, he said, "we can really show the benefit of better data, better analysis." He said clarifying and strengthening their organization's risk from a business interruption perspective "will impact how the market views their risk and how many risk transfer, risk finance issues they have to consider."

The fact that risk managers are taking fresh looks at their risks and expenditures is "a good thing," he said. "Because if we're impacting one element of the total cost of risk equation, I think the risk manager can sell that a lot easier than some other things, like strategic thinking three-year plans."

With the way the economy is now, he added, "I don't know if they can get their hands around 90 days in advance, let alone three years in advance."

The issue they are dealing with is "When's the next quarter and how am I being evaluated?" he said. He noted that in today's world, risk managers need to "be more than just transactional and more than just an insurance manager."

What's needed is "the true risk manager. We're seeing some organizations gravitate to the chief risk officer" position. Looking back just five or 10 years, he observed, risk managers did not concern themselves with issues such as supply chain and business issues to the extent they do now.

"If you're a smart risk manager you'll be looking at the whole gamut of risks and not put yourself into that silo," he noted.

He added that in this market, decisions shouldn't be based on "it's a good thing to do." For example, "if I run an ergonomics safety program that's going to impact 40 percent of my workers' comp losses, what is it going to get me back? As a consultant, we have to answer that question."

And while it may be the right thing to do for employees, he said, "that's not going to get the check cut to fund a large, elaborate program, especially now."

Mr. Iovino said that AON's 2009 Global Risk Management Survey found the top-10 risks cited by risk managers are:

o Economic slowdown

o Regulatory and legislative changes

o Business interruptions

o Increasing competition

o Commodity price risk

o Damage to reputation

o Cash flow and liquidity risk

o Distribution or supply chain failure

o Third-party liability

o Failure to attract or retain group talent

The survey found that economic slowdown was ranked eighth as a concern two years ago; that there is more pressure to deliver results with fewer resources; and that risk managers find it difficult to remain committed to established, effective risk management strategies, which affects all other risks surveyed.

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