Credit Manager Magazine 9/2021

58 CREDIT MANAGER MAGAZINE WRZESIEŃ / SEPTEMBER 2021 Introducing HARIMA, the latest member of FECMA in Greece and the challenges its members face HARIMA is the Greek Risk Association and became the latest member of the Federation of European Credit Management Associations, FECMA, at the council meeting held on Friday May 21st, 2021. HARIMA, the „Hellenic Association of Risk Managers” is a nonprofit organization that founded in 2019 as an initiative by a group of senior managers involved in the broader field of risk management. The association aspires to become the collective body of all Risk Management executives, irrespective of industry and employment specialty in Risk Management. Michael Samonas Chief Financial Officer, SIDMA Steel S.A. Risk Management & the new Law 4706/2020 on Corporate Governance The role of Risk Managers is extremely im- portant for the business world and even more important for the Capital Markets especial- ly after the newly introduced Greek Law 4706/2020 on Corporate Governance and Capital Market Modernization. The provi- sions of the am Law came into force on July 17, 2021. Listed companies should imple- ment a Corporate Governance System that includes an internal audit system, an essential element of which, is Risk Management. The Risk Manager is responsible for monitoring and coordinating the implementation of the company’s Risk Management System and re- fers to the CEO of the company. So, one of the major added value HARIMA will bring to its members is to help them face the chal- lenge of implementing a Risk Management system based on the Enterprise Risk Man- agement Methodology that follows i.e. the COSO framework. To do this, the associa- tion will provide information, training, and links to international organizations, as well as holding discussions with government and other relevant organizations regarding best practices implementations. It plans to provide education and further training to its members in the form of updates, training sessions and courses. In this way it will pave the ground for partnerships with distinguished industry pro- fessionals and academic professors with glob- al training activity that covers all the needs of a modern Risk Officer. The new membership in FECMA serves this objective. Furthermore, the association will host events on Risk Management, mostly on subjects derived from current risk issues. HARIMA’s annual conference on the 21st of September of 2021 is such an event where it will cover current trends including the challenges and opportunities presented by the disruption of new technologies, new ways of working and the incorporation of ESG into everyday risk modeling. Having introduced HARIMA and having discussed the compliance with the newly appointed regulation on Corporate Govern- ance I would like to describe other challenges our members face including the uncertainty that follows the economic recovery of the post covid era. Uncertainty about the post covid Economic Environment Uncertainty about the post covid Economic Environment is an ongoing issue. More than a year after the WHO declared COVID-19 a pandemic, its social and economic impact worldwide regarding the evolution of global health and the economy is still significant. Although the outlook for the global econ- omy has improved significantly, this varies between sectors, economies, and regions, with global economic recovery appearing unevenly and asymmetrically between dif- ferent countries. However, the developments in the field of vaccination to increase the protection and strengthen the citizens’ im- munity along with unprecedented support in many economies with targeted fiscal pol- icy measures, further improve the economic outlook. In 2020, the global economy slowed to the lowest levels after WWII at -3.2% sig- nificantly lower compared to the previous year (2.8% in 2019), amid weakening trade and investment. Global growth, according to IMF forecasts (July 2021) 1 , is projected at 6% in 2021 and 4.9% in 2022. Although the 2021 forecast is unchanged from April, there are revisions across advanced economies and emerging market and developing economies reflecting differences in pandemic develop- ments and policy shifts. In the Euro Area, economic activity deteriorated significantly in 2020 to -6.5% compared to 2019, whereas in 2Q21, showed an increase by 1.9% com- pared to the 1Q21 2 . Nevertheless, European Commission 3 expects the economy to grow by 4.8% in 2021 and 4.5% in 2022 with GDP returning to pre-crisis levels in the last quar- ter of 2021. On a local level, Greek economy contracted by 8.2% in 2020, better than expected given Greece’s high dependence on tourism and pre-existing vulnerabilities. The fiscal stimuli provided, shielded the banking sector, and kept financing conditions highly accommo- dative. OECD 4 projects that Greece’s econo- my will grow by 3.8% in 2021 and 5.0% in 2022. As COVID-19 cases began to stabilize and much of the vulnerable population had been vaccinated, with Greece’s overall vacci- nation rate near the EU average, Greece has gradually lifted containment measures since April 2021, first in education and then in services and tourism. The easing of travel re- strictions is also expected to support service activity and exports. On the other hand, the expected fourth wave of COVID-19 is like- ly to influence the short-term development prospects as well as the high portfolio of the non-performing loans, unemployment (de- spite its decline to 15% in June 2021 vs 17.8% in June 2020) and the geopolitical develop- ments, remain the biggest challenges for the FECMA