Founded with the sole purpose of advancing “sound risk management principles to improve institutional performance and financial stability,” the Risk Management Association (RMA) actively promotes and provides continuing education and professional development to professionals within the financial services industry. The not-for-profit, member-driven professional association is comprised of 2,500 institutional members (banking and non-financial bank institutions) and 18,000 individual members (relationship managers, credit officers, risk management professionals and other financial services professionals) located across the globe known as RMA Associates.

The RMA website and association events offer risk management professionals quality resources including industry research and surveys, training and certification materials, current event publications, podcasts, educational videos and networking opportunities.

Knowledge Center

RMA takes an “enterprise approach” to risk management, focusing on enhancing the understanding and articulation of risk management across institutions. While some resources on the RMA website are for purchase and or member access only, such as the RMA Journal, a portion of materials are publicly available.

The Knowledge Center tab presents three sub-sections — Publications and Resources, Training and Professional Credentials.

Housed under Publications and Resources, Books lists all white papers which are available for free. Topics for risk management professionals include financial efficiency, stress testing and industry ethics.

“8 Ways to Manage Credit Risk” outlines best practices by following the process of understanding risk — analyzing, quantifying, mitigating, monitoring risks and anticipating unidentified risks. The white paper highlights critical risk management strategies determined by a recent RMA survey of banks. “An effective management information system to track credit exposure” for example, is one top strategy suggested by the respondents.

Podcasts and Videos

With an episode archive located under Training, professionals can listen to the weekly RMA podcast for free on Soundcloud, iTunes and Google Play. A sampling of titles include “Risk Appetite Framework and its Effect on Business,” “Best Practices in Risk Identification Frameworks” and “Building a Better Third-Party Risk Management Program.” RMA also offers a collection of free educational videos conducted by industry professionals.

Events for Risk Management Professionals

Located in North America, Europe, Australia and Asia, select RMA associates run the RMA chapters. The volunteer-run chapters host local education, training and networking events for members. Conferences offer risk management professionals with a host of educational sessions and networking opportunities with colleges located across the globe. Top events listed on the RMA conferences page include:

RMA’s Annual Conference on Securities Lending — October 9 – 12, professionals will explore “market events and regulatory issues impacting the securities lending industry.”
The Annual Risk Management Conference — November 5 – 7, is RMA’s largest event which is attended by bankers from all bank sizes, featuring risk management, specialized lending and regulatory issues.
PASLA/RMA Conference on Asian Securities Lending — March 6 – 8, 2018, the annual event takes place in Hong Kong and is produced by securities lending and borrowing professionals for securities lending and borrowing professionals.
RMA’s Governance, Compliance, and Operational Risk Conference (GCOR) — April 18 – 19, 2018, “focuses on best practices in operational risk management and the demands being made upon practitioners due to Basel and the Dodd-Frank Act.”

For a full list of events, visit the events calendar page.

Additional Resources

RMA operates as a valuable education and networking tool for risk management professionals with coverage on current industry events, educational materials in print and multimedia formats, specialized industry research and annual conferences.

Optio Solutions is an additional resource for professionals looking to outsource all or part of their debt collections management to a debt collection agency or replace an existing provider. Contact Optio today to learn how our leading technology, certified Credit and Collection Compliance Officers and multi-level approach to brand protection can successfully assist your business.

About the author

Joe Gargiulo

Marketing Specialist Joe Gargiulo has 25-plus years in marketing, communications and copy writing. As a writer, he enjoys connecting story leads to all aspects of the human experience.