A warm round of applause to Manuel Buchmann, Hans Groth, Hendrik Budliger, Darius Adlung, and Heinz Zimmermann! The St. Gallen-based think tank WDA Forum has been recognized for its groundbreaking work on developing a demographic risk indicator, earning it the prestigious Swiss Risk Award 2023.
The WDA Forum’s innovative approach to understanding and addressing demographic shifts has garnered much attention, particularly for its potential to inform policy decisions and mitigate potential risks associated with an aging population. The Swiss Risk Award serves as a testament to the team’s dedication and expertise in this critical area.
The winning team convinced us with their work:
Financial markets will reflect preferences of rapidly aging societies and shortages on labor markets.
- This has implications for the expected return of various asset classes, for real estate markets, for interest rates and inflation, and much more.
- However, these “demographic risks” are notoriously neglected, badly understood and/or underestimated.
- The St. Gallen-based Think Tank WDA Forum is currently developing a demographic risk indicator – a tool that will help institutional and private investors understand the demographic risks of different investments and make better investment decisions in a rapidly changing world
The WDA Forum received the esteemed Swiss Risk Award 2023 during the organization’s flagship event Keynote Address by Sergio Ermotti and Swiss Risk Award 2023. This prestigious recognition took place on November 22, 2023 at University of Zurich, solidifying the WDA Forum’s position as a leader in risk management and innovation.
The Top 5 (in no specific order)
| Nominated (Organisation) | Nominated for | |||
| Migros Bank Ursula Wettstein, Peter Mock, Stephan Reichmuth, Gian Schwager, Laura Strähl and Tanja Plapp | Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) • Banks participating in ELA can efficiently secure emergency liquidity assistance, adding stability to the financial system •Migros Bank is the first non systemically risky bank to participate in the facility •Also, data exchange and interaction with land registry offices will be standardized and simplified across Switzerland •Migros is in daily contact with the authorities in order to mutate thousands of registered mortgage bonds •This is a challenge in federally organized Switzerland, but this has already led to successful interim results | |||
| WDA Forum Manuel Buchmann, Hans Growth, Hendrik Budliger, Darius Adlung and Heinz Zimmermann | Demographic change •Financial markets will reflect preferences of rapidly aging societies and shortages on labor markets. •This has implications for the expected return of various asset classes, for real estate markets, for interest rates and inflation, and much more. •However, these “demographic risks” are notoriously neglected, badly understood and/or underestimated. •The St. Gallen-based Think Tank WDA Forum is currently developing a demographic risk indicator – a tool that will help institutional and private investors understand the demographic risks of different investments and make better investment decisions in a rapidly changing world. | |||
| KPMG, Zurich Owen Matthews and Amar Rahman | Enhanced climate risk approach •KPMG has developed a transition risk model, which uses cutting edge techniques to quantify the impact of a transition to a low carbon future, including increased carbon and energy costs •Zurich Insurance has developed a physical risk methodology to assess damage on the granularity of individual buildings, as well as business interruptions, due to extreme weather events and chronic risks •Combining outputs from both models gives clients unique insights into their climate risk resilience | |||
| agnostic intelligence Dr. Dirk Fisseler, Rolf Kralisch and Raphael Jakob | Cyber Third-Party Risk Mgmt collaboration platform •Agnostic Intelligence has developed a Unique Cyber Third Party Risk Management collaboration platform •This includes end to end fully automated cyber risk assessments of suppliers, a “360 degree” view on cyber risks, KPI and KRI dashboards, an overview of cyber resilience and maturity level of suppliers. •Also, the Agnostic team helps organisations to centralize their critical suppliers portfolio, and makes us of AI to enhance the assessment of cyber risk for these suppliers | |||
| Antonello Cirulli, Michal Kobak and Urban Ulrych | Portfolio Construction with Hierarchical Momentum • •This academic study combines stock price momentum and hierarchical clustering in portfolio construction. •The approach counters the concentration associated with momentum portfolios. It optimizes portfolio risk and return, helping balance momentum strategies with risk management. •Backtesting on a large dataset of international stocks, they achieve enhanced cumulative and risk-adjusted returns while reducing drawdowns •Corporations are already incorporating the methodology as a customizable feature within client portfolios |
About the Swiss Risk Award
The Swiss Risk Award is an annual award for the best contribution to risk management. This can be a project or product made by an individual or group/team. It must have been made for the most part in Switzerland or for company/institution with head office in CH. The winner will be given a cash prize of CHF 2’500 and chance to present at a high profile venue.
Judging and criteria
The judging is done in several steps – the final decision who of the Top 5 will win the award was done by this years judging panel: Roger Müller (Head Risk, Zurich Cantonal Bank), Monica Mächler (Board of Directors, Zurich Insurance), Dominic Rau (Risk Management, Swiss Re) and Volker Gloe (CRO, Cembra Bank)
For each nominee, each judge should rate along each of the following criteria:
- Practical Impact: Improves (or has potential to improve) effectiveness/efficiency of risk management practices at a micro- or macro level
- Originality/creativity: Candidates are “thinking outside the box” as well as “looking at the bigger picture” while pushing/expanding the intellectual boundaries
- Societal impact: What is the potential application in contributing to the risk management system from a societal perspective? I.e. is there a broader benefit for society?
Learn more about the Swiss Risk Award.