Thomas (centre) is seen at The Asian Banker Risk Leadership Achievement Awards 2018 ceremony, accompanied by (from left) The Asian Banker International Resource directors Bill Chua, Rona Morgan, The Future of Finance Summit and Leadership Achievement Awards Advisory Council chairman Alain Chevalier, Hong Kong Exchange former chief executive and The Asian Banker Leadership Achievement Advisory Council member Paul Chow. — Photo by The Asian Banker

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd (CIMB) was recently awarded with ‘Achievement in Enterprise Risk Management’ and ‘Chief Risk Officer of the Year (for David Richard Thomas)’ at The Asian Banker Risk Management Awards 2018, and The Asian Banker Risk Leadership Achievement Awards 2018 respectively.

The Asian Banker Risk Management Awards are designed to identify emerging best practices and outstanding achievements of the best run risk management teams in financial institutions.

CIMB Group chief executive officer Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz, said: “We are honoured to have received these awards by The Asian Banker and proud to have David Richard Thomas win the Chief Risk Officer 2018 title.

“These awards are testament to CIMB’s strong risk governance, leadership and ongoing commitment in adopting risk management best practices across our businesses and operations in Asean.

“Our robust risk management system has played a significant role in setting CIMB Group on the path of sustainable growth, which will, in turn, provide greater long-term value to all our stakeholders.”

CIMB has employed the Enterprise-Wide Risk Management Framework (EWRM) as a standardised approach to effectively manage its risks and opportunities.

It noted that EWRM provides an overview of each identified risk to promote clear and accountable risk management processes and facilitates readiness and compliance to regulatory requirements. Under CIMB’s EWRM, business units have increased their accountability for risk taking activities which is in line with the Group’s three-lines-of-defence philosophy for risk management.

The Chief Risk Officer of the Year recognised David Richard Thomas’ leadership, which has successfully aligned CIMB’s strategy and business plans with its risk appetite. Thomas spearheaded a number of instrumental projects to strengthen the risk management framework and processes within CIMB Group, which include the capital and risk-weighted assets optimisation project, the risk adjusted return on capital project and the early warning indicator process.

Under Thomas’ leadership, CIMB Group has also recalibrated and evolved its forward-looking risk profile effectively.

His other contributions include the introduction of an annual risk posture workshop with the board, to highlight the importance of linking risk to strategy and capital.