Risk Management is a critical part of doing business in the financial services industry.
We at Primary Funding are a direct lender, which means we are a financial institution that provides the actual loan to a business. It’s our money we are lending out. Therefore, we’re always assessing risk when we are considering loaning money to a business. If we don’t get paid back on the money we loan, we wouldn’t be able to stay in business for very long. Simple as that.
To put things into perspective, let’s just say you’re thinking about loaning money to a friend in the hopes they will pay you back by the end of the year, plus a little interest. After all, money doesn’t grow on trees, right? Not to mention, you’re gonna need that money to cover other expenses in the future, so it’s important your friend pays you back on time, and in full.
In this hypothetical scenario, you’d be evaluating your financial risk, albeit on a relatively small scale, but financial risk nonetheless. Let’s take it a step further. Let’s say more of your friends hear about you loaning money and they ask you for a loan too. In which case, you might want to consider joining the RMA.
The Risk Management Association (RMA) is a non-profit, member-driven professional association serving the financial services industry. Its sole purpose is to advance the use of sound risk management principles in the financial services industry. RMA promotes an enterprise approach to risk management that focuses on credit risk, market risk, operational risk, securities lending, and regulatory issues.
Founded in 1914, RMA was originally called the Robert Morris Associates, named after American patriot Robert Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. Morris, the principal financier of the Revolutionary War, helped establish our country’s banking system.
Today, RMA has approximately 1,900 institutional members. These include banks of all sizes as well as nonbank financial institutions. RMA is proud of the leadership role its member institutions take in the financial services industry. Relationship managers, credit officers, risk managers, and other financial services professionals in these organizations with responsibilities related to the risk management function represent these institutions within RMA. Known as RMA Associates, these 18,500 individuals are located throughout North America and financial centers in Europe, Australia and Asia.
Members actively participate in the RMA network of chapters. These chapters are run by RMA Associates on a volunteer basis and they provide our members with opportunities in their local communities for education, training, and networking throughout all stages of their financial services career. Chapters are located across the U.S. and Canada as well as in financial centers internationally.
The San Diego Chapter, like all RMA chapters, is organized and run by volunteer members. They strongly encourage current or prospective members to become involved in shaping the future direction of the chapter by contacting any of the current officers or committee chairs at: https://www.sandiegorma.org/contact-us/. They would be happy to discuss the many benefits that can be derived from membership in RMA.
On March 10th, we at PFC are proud to be partnering with RMA by sponsoring a FREE webinar program titled “White Collar Crime.” The presentation will provide an overview of the FBI’s Complex Financial Crimes program and some information on trends the FBI is seeing in that area. Special Agent Roberts will walk through one of his cases to show how an investigation works from beginning to end.
If you’re interested in attending this webinar, please go to the Events Section of this Newsletter to register.
