Threadneedle Asset Management was recognised as a leader amongst international asset management firms at the annual OpRisk & Compliance Awards Ceremony at London’s Waldorf Hotel earlier this month. OpRisk & Compliance is the leading monthly publication providing international coverage of operational risk and compliance for the Finance Sector. Each year OpRisk engages a panel of experts to judge the business achievement of aspiring entrants in a number of different operational risk and compliance categories.

Threadneedle won the Operational Risk Framework Award for Asset Managers despite significant competition from other serious industry players such as GE Asset Management, the MAN Group and Jupiter. This award acknowledged the significant and exemplary work Threadneedle had done over the previous twelve months developing a robust framework for operational risk management. In addition to the Asset Management Award, eleven other awards were made to entrants from across Europe, many of whom had travelled to London to attend the annual OpRisk & Compliance Conference.

It’s significant that the first step which the Board of Threadneedle took when they decided to raise the profile of operational risk was to combine Operational Risk and Strategy in one department. It was this decision that led to such a strong emphasis being placed upon developing a robust framework for operational risk and to putting in place an experienced professional team to manage Threadneedle’s operational risk area. This approach has enabled Threadneedle to make very rapid progress towards establishing a comprehensive system to manage operational risk, and was an important factor in winning the approval of the expert panel of judges at the OpRisk Achievement Awards Event.

Chase Cooper has been closely involved in helping Threadneedle develop and implement its systems for managing operational risk. During early 2005 Chase Cooper provided consulting services and project management resources to help Threadneedle establish its operational risk framework. Later in 2005, after a thorough vendor selection process, Threadneedle decided to purchase Chase Cooper’s highly functional operational risk software, Accelerate, to provide the technology support for its operational risk activities. Using Accelerate the Operational Risk Team has now developed a comprehensive risk and controls database and key risk indicators. They are now beginning work on recording, understanding and managing loss events, and will later move on to modelling control failures and to economic capital optimisation. For all these activities they will be supported by integrated Accelerate software modules, and by consulting services to help them to maximise the business benefits of the software.