ISO 31000 Risk Management for Banks and Insurers Training Course

Course overview

Banks and insurers face risk decisions that cut across credit, market, liquidity, operational resilience, conduct, financial crime, underwriting, claims and third-party dependencies. Yet risk registers often become static reporting artefacts, appetite statements remain disconnected from front-line decisions, and control assessments fail to show whether residual exposure sits within approved limits. This course equips practitioners to apply ISO 31000 as a disciplined, enterprise-wide method for making risk management useful in business planning, product governance, capital decisions and regulatory reporting.

Participants learn to translate ISO 31000 principles, framework and process into banking and insurance operating practices. They establish context; define risk criteria; identify causes, events and consequences; assess inherent and residual risk; evaluate treatment options; and monitor changes using risk indicators. The course covers risk taxonomy design, risk appetite metrics, control effectiveness testing, scenario analysis, bow-tie analysis, risk heat maps and reporting packs. Participants also examine how ISO 31000 aligns with ISO 31010, operational resilience, the three-lines model and the expectations of prudential supervisors.

Delivery combines instructor-led teaching with sector-specific cases involving a bank loan-portfolio concentration issue, a cyber-related claims disruption and a material outsourced-service failure. Working in groups, participants build and challenge an ISO 31000 risk assessment, select treatments, assign owners and create escalation thresholds. Each participant leaves with a practical risk-management application pack: a tailored risk assessment template, risk-and-control matrix, risk appetite indicator set, treatment plan and 90-day implementation roadmap for their own business area.

The programme is suited to experienced risk, compliance, audit, finance, operations and business leaders who already work with regulated financial-services processes and need a consistent method for turning risk information into defensible management action.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the ISO 31000 principles, framework and process to a banking or insurance risk-management cycle
• Define risk scope, context and assessment criteria using a documented ISO 31000 context statement
• Construct a financial-services risk taxonomy linking causes, events, consequences, controls and owners
• Assess inherent and residual risk using calibrated likelihood, impact and control-effectiveness scales
• Develop risk appetite statements, limits and key risk indicators for a business line or insurance portfolio
• Use bow-tie analysis and ISO 31010 techniques to analyse material operational, credit or underwriting exposures
• Prepare a risk treatment plan with accountable owners, milestones, control actions and escalation triggers
• Produce an executive risk report that connects residual exposure, appetite breaches and management decisions

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Enterprise Risk Managers — who need to embed a consistent ISO 31000 method across banking or insurance functions
• Operational Risk Managers — who assess process, technology, people and third-party failure exposures
• Chief Risk Office Analysts — who prepare risk appetite, risk-profile and committee reporting materials
• Compliance Managers — who must connect regulatory obligations, conduct risks and control evidence
• Internal Audit Managers — who evaluate whether risk-management processes and controls are suitably designed
• Business Line, Underwriting or Operations Leaders — who own risks and need to make defensible treatment decisions

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical exposure to risk, control, compliance, audit, finance, underwriting, claims, lending or operations within a bank, insurer or closely regulated financial-services firm. They should understand basic concepts such as inherent risk, residual risk, controls, risk appetite, incidents and escalation. Experience with a risk register, control self-assessment, key risk indicators or committee reporting is helpful, but formal ISO 31000 certification is not required. Participants should be comfortable reviewing tables and simple risk data in Microsoft Excel. No programming, advanced quantitative modelling, actuarial qualification or prior use of specialist GRC software is required.

Training methodology

An instructor with financial-services risk experience leads short technical briefings, then participants apply each ISO 31000 stage to realistic bank and insurer cases. Exercises use risk registers, risk-and-control matrices, bow-tie diagrams, appetite metrics and treatment-plan templates in Microsoft Excel. Groups compare scoring assumptions, challenge weak control evidence and present recommendations as if reporting to a risk committee. Individual application planning on Day 5 converts the course materials into a defined implementation initiative for the participant’s own portfolio, process or business unit.

Course outline

Day 1: ISO 31000 foundations for financial-services risk

• ISO 31000:2018 principles and value creation
• The ISO 31000 framework and leadership accountabilities
• Risk governance in banks and insurers
• Three-lines model and risk ownership boundaries
• Risk taxonomy design for financial-services exposures
• Risk appetite, tolerance and capacity distinctions
• Establishing scope, context and risk criteria

Workshop: Participants create a context statement and risk taxonomy for a selected banking product, insurance portfolio or operational process.

Day 2: Risk identification and structured assessment

• Cause-event-consequence risk statements
• Risk identification workshops and evidence sources
• Inherent-risk and residual-risk assessment logic
• Likelihood and impact scale calibration
• Financial, customer, regulatory and resilience impact criteria
• Risk-and-control matrix construction
• Control design versus operating-effectiveness assessment

Workshop: Participants build a risk-and-control matrix for a loan-origination, claims-handling or payments process and score its residual risks.

Day 3: Risk analysis methods and scenario techniques

• ISO 31010 technique selection criteria
• Bow-tie analysis for operational and conduct events
• Scenario analysis for severe but plausible disruptions
• Root-cause analysis and control-failure pathways
• Risk heat maps and aggregation limitations
• Correlation and concentration risk across business activities
• Data quality, assumptions and assessment uncertainty

Workshop: Teams develop a bow-tie diagram and scenario narrative for a cyber-enabled claims disruption or outsourced-service failure.

Day 4: Risk evaluation, treatment and appetite monitoring

• Evaluating risk against appetite and tolerance thresholds
• Risk treatment options and cost-benefit considerations
• Treatment-plan design and action ownership
• Key risk indicator design and threshold setting
• Early-warning indicators and breach escalation
• Control remediation tracking and closure evidence
• Residual-risk acceptance and management approval

Workshop: Participants design a treatment plan and key risk indicator set for an appetite breach, including escalation triggers and accountable owners.

Day 5: Reporting, assurance and implementation

• Executive risk reporting and committee decision packs
• Risk profile dashboards in Microsoft Excel and Power BI
• Risk reporting narratives for emerging exposures
• Monitoring and review under ISO 31000
• Assurance testing and internal-audit interfaces
• Integrating risk assessment into planning and change governance
• Building a 90-day ISO 31000 implementation roadmap

Workshop: Participants present an executive risk report and complete a 90-day implementation roadmap for applying ISO 31000 in their own area.

Tools & standards covered

ISO 31000:2018 Risk management — Guidelines, ISO 31010:2019 Risk management — Risk assessment techniques, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Power BI

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions