I am an Associate in Brodies' Banking & Finance Team. I am highly experienced in cross-border transactions, and regularly advise on the Scottish aspects of securitisations and warehouse financing deals as well as on real estate, debt and acquisition finance projects and other structured finance transactions including major portfolio sales and purchases. When not rolling my sleeves up for banking deals, I am busy in my role as Secretariat to the Scottish Financial Risk Academy Group.
What is the SFRA Group?
The SFRA Group is a recently combined initiative between the Scottish Financial Risk Academy, an established partnership between industry and academia (currently Heriot-Watt University and the University of Edinburgh) whose goal is to improve the understanding of risk management across the financial services sector, and Scottish Financial Enterprise, the representative body for financial services in Scotland.
As there is often a mathematical or scientific basis to risk management solutions across financial services, the aims of the combined SFRA Group are to bring new risk methodologies into industry practice, to encourage knowledge transfer and positively influence the training and development of the next generation of professionals in the financial risk, insurance, data science and fintech sectors amongst others. The strategic industry-academia partnership helps Scotland build a reputation as a centre of excellence for risk management in financial services.
What is your role?
As Secretariat to the SFRA Group, I am responsible for coordinating, attending and recording the regular meetings for the Group's steering committee (currently comprised of circa 30 leaders from industry and academia), setting the agenda, and project managing the actions of the Group. I also assist with event-planning for the Group. For example, I recently coordinated the combined Group's panel and workshop launch event attended by over 100 guests, collated the outputs, and am now involved in welcoming new expert industry volunteers to the steering committee and the Group's different workstreams.
What are the SFRA Group's current goals?
The Group has identified five central areas of risk in financial services that are of significant interest across different industry sectors. They include, establishing best practice risk functions in the context of new data sources, treating customers fairly in the context of new data sources and the application of machine learning, cyber risk and operational resilience, lending and credit risk from a consumer analytics and modelling perspective, and the risks associated with transitioning to a low carbon economy. The Group is in the process of narrowing the scope for each workstream, identifying desired outcomes, and identifying ways in which it can inform and lead thinking in the identified areas. For example, the hot topics in cyber risk workstream include improving knowledge around cloud technology reliance and improving methodologies for cyber insurance risk quantification.
All of these workstreams are in development, being driven forward by the commitment and enthusiasm of volunteers from industry and academia to enhance quantitative risk management.
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