Airmic: resilience required as risk management changes

Innovative risk financing programmes and captive involvement are of no value if they are not resilient. A panel at the 2025 Airmic Captives Forum panel addressed the need for a long-term strategy, informed by scenario planning to remain fit for purpose and resilient.

Moderated by Matthew McEwan, director risk management at Coca-Cola Europacific Partners, the other panellists were Yann Krattiger, head ART EMEA at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions and Mark Owen, managing director at Artex Risk Solutions (Guernsey).

The panel all agreed that the risk landscape is changing at greater and greater speed as new risks are identified and flagged up.

Krattiger said that these changes meant that there will probably not be a return to the traditional insurance market for many companies, with captives and other options being considered.

Owen agreed that the way that people look at risks has changed in recent years as there’s not just a lot more data out there but also new risks. Are new risk strategies therefore needed, he asked.

He also pointed out that although captives have done well in recent years thanks to good regulations from domiciles, not all regulators are equal and even captives need to understand the risks involved in some areas and domiciles.

The panel agreed that captives can be for all kinds of companies, big to small, and that there have been times when captives have even outlived their parent companies. They underlined that resilience can be a matter of capital & how much you want to put into it. Speed to market when setting up a captive can be important at times, but an overall strategy is always required to be assessed carefully – and updated.

The panel also, rather ruefully, agreed that there are times when risk managers are not always seen as vitally important for some companies, or get what they ask for in terms of resources and funding. It was pointed out that the regulatory cost of non-compliance for risk management can be steep at times.

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