On 29-30 September the Federation of European Risk Management Associations will hold its biennial seminar in the London Hilton Metropole

Ferma is coming to London! On 29-30 September the Federation of European Risk Management Associations will break with tradition and hold its biennial seminar, usually located in Brussels, in the London Hilton Metropole.

For those who want to have the latest information on the development of risk management across Europe, and assess how their own situation compares with their peers, the seminar holds a special interest. The highlight will be the announcement of the results of the 2010 Ferma risk management survey.

The benchmarking survey takes place every other year. It measures the status of risk management in Europe and establishes the visibility of risk managers and their role.

For the first time this year, members of 20 national risk management associations will be taking part. Ferma has gained four new members since the previous survey in 2008 so there will now be contributions from risk managers in the Czech Republic, Finland, Norway and Turkey.

Surveys like these are only valuable if they have a significant number of respondents in a wide range of different sectors. Ferma has always managed to achieve that in the past and this year should be no exception. Language barriers are no excuse for not responding. To promote the involvement of the national risk management associations and get a wider cross section of replies, Ferma is having the questionnaires translated into German, French, Spanish and Italian rather than just printing them in English.

The survey is addressed to risk and insurance managers, heads of finance, general counsel, heads of internal audit, CFOs, legal counsel, treasurers and company secretaries across Europe. Questions will cover:

. risk governance

. the role of the risk manager and risk management

. the level of maturity of the risk management process

. the extent to which insurance supports overall risk management

. current regulatory issues.

Answers will enable the creation of a set of risk management profiles using two criteria: regulation versus business as the main impetus for risk management investment, and complexity of business depending on size, international reach, types of activity and stock exchange listing.

The survey is being sponsored by Axa Corporate Solutions and Ernst & Young whose local representatives in the European countries involved will also be supporting the project. The survey starts this month and will be completed in May.

The Ferma seminar is free for risk managers who are members of national associations and London looks forward to welcoming them in September.