Edition

2019 Call for Papers On Enterprise Risk Management

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Overview

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) has enjoyed dramatic growth in its audience, issues, insights, methods, and tools. The pace of ERM improvement is both remarkable and increasing. This Call for Papers offers you an opportunity to contribute to the rapid evolution of ERM.

With this perspective in mind, this Call for Papers is being issued in conjunction with the 2019 Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Symposium.  The ERM Symposium is intended to expand knowledge and provide a discussion forum for a wide range of professionals. The ERM Symposium is an annual event sponsored by the Joint Risk Management Section, a collaborative effort of the Society of Actuaries (SOA), the Casualty Actuarial Society (CAS) and the Canadian Institute of Actuaries (CIA).  Each of these organizations is extensively involved in Enterprise Risk Management.  The annual ERM Symposium presents a unique opportunity for members of these organizations and other interested parties to gather and explore previously untapped synergies.

II. Topics

The 2019 ERM Symposium is seeking papers that strengthen the practice of enterprise risk management by opening new perspectives and strengthening available insights, methods, and tools.  We welcome all such papers and offer the following lists to illustrate, but not exhaust, topics that might be covered.  As in previous years, these topics are intended to serve as examples, and are not meant to restrict potential paper topics and ideas in any way:

  • The Integrated ERM perspective on risks of multiple types
    • How do stakeholder expectations for ERM vary among the various users of and participants in ERM programs?
    • Should ERM practices vary based on the current macroeconomic environment?
  • Incorporating Time and Duration into ERM Strategies
    • How do current ERM decisions affect future ERM costs and probabilities?
    • Are there optimal paths for establishing superior ERM strategies over time?
    • Can types of ERM risks be swapped over time?
  • Types of Risk within ERM
    • Financial Risk - Types of financial risk; stress testing; liquidity
    • Market Risk – Should government market interventions be contemplated in an ERM program?
    • Operational Risk – How can one measure and match operational risk exposures to loss experience? How does operational risk aggregate across the various units comprising an enterprise?
    • Strategic Risk – How do you quantify a risk that interacts so thoroughly with other risks?
    • Supply Chain Risks – How can one identify key risk indicators of supply chain risk?  Could contingent supply chain contracts hedge against supply chain risk?
    • Reputational Risk – How impactful is a reputation or a brand name in an Internet world?
    • Physical Assets - How can physical assets be incorporated into ERM (e.g., energy industry— generation, load forecasting) where operations are new and market information evolving?
  • ERM by Industry
    • Insurance Industry – What impact is ERM having on the insurance industry?  What are common issues that ERM has to address in insurance?
    • Banking – What impact is ERM having on the banking industry?
    • Asset management – What risks increase when passive investing styles dominate?
  • ERM by Type of Enterprise
    • How does ERM adapt to privately held vs. publicly traded vs. mutual companies vs. associations?
    • How should ERM contribute to effective pension management and how should pensions be recognized in the ERM of participating companies and unions/workers?
    • How do ERM programs change as the size of the enterprise increases? 
  • Improving ERM Tools
    • Risk Appetite – How to measure and recognize temporal and economic changes
    • Hedging and Insurance – How to incorporate specific contracts in general strategies
    • Dashboards – What to monitor, how often to update and how to drill down to detail
  • Regulation and ERM
    • What are issues/challenges to meeting regulatory ERM requirements?
    • How do regulatory capital models compare to economic capital models?
  • Rating Agencies and ERM
    • Do distinct before and after ERM ratings help investors better understand potential investments?
  • ERM Measurement Issues
    • Alternative Measures - What models, existing and new, are best suited to evaluating enterprise risks?
    • What are the challenges for identifying the nature and extent of interactions between financial and operational risks in the tail?
    • How can ERM be used to assess emerging and extreme risks?
    • How do Black Swans affect ERM? 
    • Interaction among risks, i.e., aggregation of risk and diversification benefits. How to model correlations that vary based on conditions?
    • What are the types of back-testing techniques available for insurance risks and calibration of stress tests?
  • Model Risk
    • What are potential risks to relying on models?
    • How can model risk be mitigated?
  • ERM Implementation
    • Corporate Governance – What steps are appropriate at different levels of management?
    • How can the ERM contribution to shareholder value be measured and communicated?
    • Integrating ERM in enterprise functions such as strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions, staff development, sales support, etc.
    • How have the Actuarial Standards of Practice applicable to ERM helped to achieve a firm’s goals?
    • How is qualitative analysis integrated with quantitative ERM tools
  • Opportunistic Risk Management
    • How has ERM been used to make better decisions?
    • How has an ERM framework led to more consistent decision making?

Where appropriate, papers should include specific examples illustrating how a practitioner could apply any proposed approaches and how to communicate them to all levels of an organization.  It is anticipated that most authors will elect to focus on certain aspects of their chosen topics and not cover all related issues. 

III. Submission of Abstracts

The first step in submitting a paper is to electronically send an abstract or outline for your proposed paper by December 7, 2018 to Jan Schuh, jschuh@soa.org.

Abstracts should clearly outline what will be covered in the paper.  Authors who are unsure whether their topic is appropriate are encouraged to nonetheless submit an abstract for consideration.  If the paper is not accepted for the ERM Symposium, we may be able to suggest a more appropriate alternative publication.

At a minimum, the submission should include a brief description of the subject of the paper; whether the paper, for review purposes, should be considered theoretical, applied, or both; a list of key items to be covered and a short biographical sketch of the author’s experience, prior publications and presentations.  

An email response stating your abstract has been received will be sent within three days of receipt. 

Notice of acceptance of abstracts for possible inclusion of papers in ERM Symposium materials are anticipated to be sent to authors by December 17, 2018.  If you do not receive an email, please contact Jan Schuh directly using the information above.

IV. Submission of Papers

All papers, based on accepted abstracts, must be completed and submitted electronically no later than February 8, 2019 to Jan Schuh at jschuh@soa.org  Questions, if any, regarding delivery should also be addressed to Jan Schuh.

Submissions that have a copyright must be accompanied by written permission to reprint.

Notice of status of your paper will be sent to authors by February 28, 2019.

V.  Procedure for Reviewing Abstracts and Papers

Submitted abstracts will be evaluated by a review group for (A) their suitability to the ERM Symposium, and (B) their potential to be presented at the 2019 ERM Symposium. This group will include representatives from the symposium sponsors. 

Because of limited time available during the ERM Symposium, not all accepted abstracts/papers can be guaranteed the opportunity for presentation at the symposium.  Papers to be presented at the ERM Symposium will be selected based on the abstracts submitted and the actual papers themselves.  

The final determination as to the number of papers invited for presentation will be made after all abstracts and papers have been submitted and reviewed.  The sponsoring organizations reserve the right to decline any papers that do not meet the standards of the review group.

VI. Paper Prizes

Currently planned prizes are:

  • The Actuarial Foundation’s ERM Research Excellence Award in Memory of Hubert Mueller for Best Overall Paper, with a monetary award of $7,500
  • Joint CAS/CIA/SOA Risk Management Section Award for Practical Risk Management Applications, with a monetary award of $5,000

Prizes are contingent upon winning authors’ permission to include their papers in the online symposium proceedings published in conjunction with the ERM Symposium.

VII. Meeting Fees and Expenses

The meeting registration fee for one author per paper selected for presentation will be waived.  Travel and lodging will be at authors’ expense.  For award winners, in addition to the meeting registration fee for one author per paper being waived, travel and lodging expenses for one author per paper selected as award winners is expected to be reimbursed up to a specified amount. 

All other fees and expenses are the responsibilities of the authors and presenters.

VIII. Publication and Presentation

The papers will appear online as part of the ERM Symposium proceedings, and may be submitted by authors to suitable peer-reviewed publications for publication consideration. The sponsoring organizations reserve the right not to publish any paper that does not meet the criteria and standards of the review group. The sponsoring organizations reserve the right to publish all papers and to copyright all published papers without a previous copyright.  In addition, excerpts or synopses of the papers may be published for promotional purposes.

IX. Questions

Please direct any questions regarding this Call for Papers to Ronora Stryker, Society of Actuaries Research Actuary, at rstryker@soa.org.