Operational risk solution of the year, ViClarity
In the past year, operational resilience has become a spotlight issue for risk management teams at insurers.
Regulators have been primarily concerned that insurers' finances can survive a catastrophe or crisis. But their focus has swung to ensuring firms can actually continue to operate if, for example, a third-party supplier of services happens to shut down, or there is a large-scale cyber incident.
ViClarity won this year's best operational risk solution because it allows insurers to track and manage all of their audit, risk and compliance in one system. In this way, the platform enables organisations to effectively identify, monitor, score and report on their operational risks.
ViClarity claims it is unique in allowing customisation of its systems to suit each business. The client list of some 50 European insurance organisations using ViClarity's software for operational risk underlines the strong reputation it has built up.
In today's landscape, regulators are focusing heavily on accountability with developments such as the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (SM&CR) in the UK, for example.
ViClarity was judged to help facilitate this operational risk accountability. For example, reports can be tailored to client need, and a colour-coded dashboard enables risk officers to monitor risks and mitigation controls over time, location and business area.
The dashboard also contains comprehensive performance metrics – captured in real-time – for each month, risk area, individual or group of risks or controls.
ViClarity is very much an end-to-end operational risk solution. Organisations can automate their risk registers, control attestations, KRI tracking and operational risk events on the system. All of these modules can be linked, allowing risk owners to have a full picture of all risk metrics.
Neil O'Sullivan, business development manager at ViClarity, says an increasing focus on operational risk by regulators means insurers have become more open to partnering with software solutions providers to help them address this risk.
As a provider that operates in Ireland and the UK, and has customers in the US and Canada, O'Sullivan says ViClarity's solution stands out because it is configurable and customisable.
He comments: "We're always updating what we offer, and in the last six months ViClarity has also launched a survey tool on its platform to allow companies to understand the culture of compliance at organisations."