Join us for an exclusive in-person event where we delve into the cutting-edge trends in AI Risk Management and Model Risk Management (MRM). The convergence of incoming regulations, AI adoption, and market volatility presents both challenges and opportunities for Financial Services.
Top industry experts and customer speakers will guide you through AI’s transformative impact on MRM within financial services and how responsible AI adoption can fuel innovation while effectively managing risks.
Don’t miss this opportunity to stay ahead in the ever-evolving world of Model Risk Management!
Sessions
- 10.00am – 11.00am:
Registration, Tea, Coffee & Pastries
- 11.00am – 11.20am:
Welcome & Introductions
David Asermely - Global Head of MRM and AI Governance, SAS
- 11.20am – 11.35am:
Opening Keynote: Navigating SS1/23 – MRM principles from the Bank of England.
The Bank of England join us to outline to provide practical tips on the upcoming SS1/23 regulation, and outline how your organisation should be adapting for this incoming regulation.
Catarina Souza, Head of Model Development and Review, Bank of England & PRA
- 11.40am – 12.10pm:
Keynote: MRM Insights: Learning from the US Federal Reserve’s SR 11-7
The US Federal Reserve’s SR 11-7 provides crucial guidance on Model Risk Management for banking organisations. In this session, we explore valuable lessons that UK banks and building societies can glean from the US experience. From regulatory perspectives to practical implementation, we delve into actionable insights and strategies to navigate incoming MRM regulation.
David Palmer, Senior Supervisory Financial Analyst, Federal Reserve Board
- 12.15pm – 1.15pm:
Networking Lunch
- 1.15pm – 2.00pm:
Panel: Turning regulatory change into strategic advantage – Fostering Innovation in Financial Services.
How can regulation, such as SS1/23 or Consumer Duty, serve as a catalyst for innovation within the financial services industry? Engage in a Q&A session with the PRA, Federal Reserve, and other MRM experts as we explore the transformative potential of regulation.
Mark Thundercliffe, Former CRO HSBC & Virgin Money
Catarina Souza, Head of Model Development and Review, Bank of England & PRA
David Palmer, Senior Supervisory Financial Analyst, Federal Reserve Board
- 2.00pm – 2.45pm:
Panel: AI in MRM
Explore the future of AI in Model Risk Management (MRM), especially considering the new EU AI Act. Uncover AI’s pivotal role in risk control, model validation, and monitoring. Can it truly automate these critical processes? Join our panellists to peer into the horizon, envisioning how AI will shape the landscape of MRM.
David Asermely, Global Head of MRM and AI Governance, SAS
Dr Iain Brown, Head of Data Science, SAS
Andri Theunissen, Head of Model Risk Management, Nedbank
Kirsty Cartwright, Head of Model Risk Capabilities, NatWest Group
- 2.45pm – 3.00pm:
Afternoon Break
- 3.00pm – 3.45pm:
Panel: What might the future look like for AI & Model Risk Management teams?
A day in the life of AI&MRM professionals is already challenging, given the numerous and often simultaneous priorities faced. In this session we will take a forward-looking view of what might lie ahead to help us prepare ourselves, our teams and our organisations, to ensure we are AI&MRM fit for the future.
John Rea, Former Head of MRM, HSBC
Alex Roberts, MD Head of Model Risk Management, HSBC
Sarah Jefferies, Head of Model Risk Management, Nationwide
- 3.50pm – 4.30pm:
How SAS can unlock your AI fitness
Discover strategies to harness AI’s potential while minimizing risks. From optimizing collaboration to implementing best practices, this session offers actionable insights for a resilient AI-powered model risk management framework.
David Asermely, Global Head of MRM & AI Governance, SAS
Terisa Roberts, Director & Global Lead for Risk Modelling and Decisioning, SAS
- 4.30pm – 4.40pm:
Closing Remarks
- 4.45pm – 6.00pm:
Networking Drinks & Nibbles
Speakers
David Asermely, Global Head of MRM and AI Governance, SAS
David Asermely is the Global Head of MRM and AI Governance at SAS, responsible for product design, support, partner strategy and more. Passionate about translating data into actionable intelligence, David combines the best technologies and design principles to help financial services organisations improve modelling efficiency and quality.
David holds two master’s degrees from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Prior to joining SAS, he managed the Bank of New York Mellon’s Global Performance and Risk Analytics product set.
Catarina Souza, Head of Model Development and Review Division, Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA)
Catarina Souza is the Head of Model Development and Review Division at the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). Prior to joining the PRA, Catarina was a Senior Expert for Model Risk Management at ING, where she led the implementation of the model risk management framework globally for the bank, with a significant focus on the adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology.
Catarina has over 17 years of working experience, including leading multicultural international teams successfully delivering cross-border projects in the areas of credit risk and model risk management. Prior to joining ING, Catarina worked with S&P Global Market Intelligence, overseeing numerous clients across EMEA and the Americas, managing the development, implementation, maintenance, and validation of credit risk models.
David Palmer, Senior Supervisory Financial Analyst, Division of Banking Supervision and Regulation, Federal Reserve Board
David’s work focuses on banks’ model risk management practices, banks’ and supervisors’ stress testing activities, banks’ capital planning practices, validation of supervisory stress testing models, and banks’ credit risk capital models. He was a primary author of the Federal Reserve’s Supervisory Guidance on Model Risk Management (SR 11-7) and continues to lead its implementation. He was a key contributor to the supervisory guidance on capital planning for large firms and final rules to implement Dodd-Frank Act stress testing requirements and the Capital Plan Rule. More recently, David has evaluated supervised firms’ use of fintech, including AI/machine learning.
Mark Thundercliffe, Former CRO at HSBC & Virgin Money – Senior Advisor SAS Northern Europe
Mark is currently Group Senior Advisor for Bank South Pacific, the leading bank in the South Pacific, operating in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, and Vanuatu. In addition, Mark is Senior Advisor across Northern Europe for SAS, a global leader in analytics, and holds several non-executive board roles with Financial Services companies in the UK.
Formerly, Mark was the Group Chief Risk Officer of Virgin Money for 7 years, previously EMEA Chief Risk Officer & Global Head of IFR9 & IRB of HSBC also for 7 years. With over 37 years Financial Services experience in corporate, retail and business banking globally, Mark is recognised as an international banking expert in Risk management & was awarded by the financial services industry, UK CRO of the year in 2018 & Lifetime Achievement award for his contribution to UK Banking in 2022.
Mark has held several senior international positions including President and CEO with Home Credit (Asia) and he was also an Executive Director and Business Head (Russia) with Renaissance Capital in Moscow. With Citi he progressed from Chief Risk Officer (UK & Ireland) to become CEO of Citi Consumer (Russia). Prior to this, he worked with Citi, latterly as Executive and Business Head, based in India.
Mark is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management.
John Rea, Former Head of Model Risk Management, HSBC
John Rea is a senior industry leader with extensive experience of delivering business strategic improvements, both in the UK and internationally. John is currently a consultant for SAS and Managing Director of John Rea Consultancy Limited. Before commencing work with SAS, John was the Head of Model Risk Management for HSBC UK for many years.
John’s expertise covers Risk and Operations, having held roles including CRO, COO and Transformation roles spanning 29 years in various UK and Global organisations. His firm provides consultancy in Risk, Operations, Model Risk Management & AI, Target operating models, Cost saving initiatives, Transformation and Business Strategy. Before commencing work with SAS, John was the Head of Model Risk Management for HSBC UK for many years.
Dr. Iain Brown, Head of Data Science, SAS
Dr. Iain Brown is the Head of Data Science for Northern Europe and Adjunct Professor of Marketing Data Science at University of Southampton. Over the past decade he has worked across all sectors, providing thought leadership on the topics of Risk, AI and Machine Learning and their ethical applications. During his time at SAS he has delivered numerous projects and driven innovation in the fields of AI and the corresponding fields of machine learning, deep learning and natural language understanding.
Terisa Roberts, Director and Global Lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning, SAS
Terisa Roberts is Director and Global lead for Risk Modeling and Decisioning at SAS. With more than 20 years of industry experience in risk management, Terisa advises financial services around the world on best practices in risk modeling, risk decisioning and the responsible use of AI and machine learning. Terisa has helped large, global organizations across Europe, Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and the Americas with their enterprise transformation programmes in risk management. Throughout her career, Terisa specialized in state-of-the-art risk analytics and regulatory compliance, including credit risk management (AIRB/IFRS9), enterprise stress testing and model governance.
As an accomplished author of a variety of publications, Terisa regularly speaks at international conferences on the latest innovation in risk management. She holds a Ph D in Operations Research and is based in Sydney, Australia
Andri Theunissen, Head of Model Risk Management, Nedbank
Andri Theunissen is the head of the Model Risk Management team at Nedbank. In her role, she is responsible for communicating Nedbank's model risk narrative, promoting best practices across the model landscape, and providing guidance in the development of modeling solutions that unlock value for the business and its clients. Her focus is on putting the MRM framework into action, embedding it in a way that brings tangible benefits to the organization. Andri's experience at Nedbank has centered on credit risk modelling and the development and digitisation of the model risk management framework. Prior to joining Nedbank, she worked as a risk advisory consultant at PwC, specialising in market risk across various industries.
Alex Roberts, Head of Model Risk Management, HSBC UK
Alex is the Head of Model Risk Management for HSBC UK and Global Wealth and Personal Banking. Alex has worked in Risk for 22 years, primarily Retail Credit Risk and Modelling, for Lloyds Banking Group, Barclaycard International and HSBC. She is a known expert in many credit risk and modelling disciplines such as IRB, IFRS9, Forecasting and Stress Testing, and traditional and advanced analytics Scorecards.
In 2023 Alex’s modelling team were the first in the industry to receive approval for the Mortgage Hybrid Rating System, winning the Credit Strategy award for modelling in two years in a row. Alex is a recognised leader, with a natural aptitude for people development, mentoring, coaching and team success, having created and managed several large-scale team events, bringing together colleagues from multiple locations globally to change working relationships, break preconceptions and to work to deliver as one team.