PRMIA and Microsoft Survey Offers Insight on the Future of Risk Management and Compliance

MINNEAPOLIS — Sept. 8, 2010 — The Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) and Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq “MSFT”) today announced the results of a survey conducted to determine global trends and perspectives on the future of risk management and compliance.

Survey respondents included 1,662 global PRMIA members, 84 percent of whom are from financial institutions and 16 percent from nonfinancial institutions.

Susan Hauser, vice president, Worldwide Industry and Global Accounts, Microsoft, explained, “This global PRMIA survey, supported by Microsoft, is about defining the future vision, blueprint and game changers for next-generation risk management practices. It uniquely captures the broader pulse of the risk profession beyond regulations, including vision, game changers, productivity, and a generational shift in talent pool and technology. The survey responses clearly confirm the global demand for easy-to-use automation and analytics, and validate our efforts to help enterprises manage risk and meet compliance needs with solutions that automate and simplify governance, compliance and risk management. This survey is one of many initiatives by Microsoft and PRMIA to drive risk and compliance industry thought leadership.”

“This survey provides a benchmark to risk and compliance practitioners across both financial and nonfinancial sectors who are facing decisions today that will define their standards and systems for years to come,” said Geoff Kates, chair of PRMIA.

Trends in Risk Management and Compliance Priorities and Skills

Members in both financial and nonfinancial institutions recognize leading trends that are important to future industry blueprints. Both see enterprise risk management as a leading trend, but other responses differ. Financial institutions place a strong emphasis on liquidity risk buffers and stress testing, while nonfinancial firms focus more on operational risk and cash flow at risk (CFAR).

The top skills identified by risk managers for future risk and compliance roles are deeper business knowledge, and quantitative and communication skills.

Future Trends in Risk Technology

Respondents express expectations of more automation and self-serve analytical tools, allowing greater time to be spent on strategic and proactive risk mitigation activities, rather than on time-consuming tactical tasks like data aggregation. They also identify greater visualization of risk as a means to increase cross-company collaboration in risk management. Also implicit is the role of technology enablers to enhance productivity and efficiency in the workplace.

While recognized as being important, obtaining risk data for management and board reporting continues to present many obstacles, including lack of effective tools for aggregation or analysis and the unavailability of the data.

Sai Sireesh, Microsoft director for Risk & Compliance Industry Strategy and PRMIA Seattle co-regional director, led this PRMIA initiative and played a lead role in structuring the survey and compiling the results. Risk management and compliance industry solutions are a key focus within the Microsoft industry group, which comprises industry experts dedicated to engaging strategically on key initiatives. Working closely with a large ecosystem of best-of-breed risk management and compliance solution providers, Microsoft’s wide range of end-user technology capabilities help integrate the different aspects of risk management and regulatory controls in everyday activities for a simpler, faster and more cost-effective adoption. More information on Microsoft is available at http://www.microsoft.com/enterprise/industry.

About PRMIA

The Professional Risk Managers’ International Association (PRMIA) is the highest standard for risk professionals, with more than 60 chapters around the world and over 70,000 members from nearly 200 countries. A non-profit, member-led association, PRMIA is dedicated to defining and implementing the best practices of risk management through education, including the Professional Risk Manager (PRM) designation and Associate PRM certificate; webinar, online, classroom and in-house training; events; networking; and online resources. More information can be found at www.prmia.org.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

Note to editors: For more information, news and perspectives from Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft News Center at http://www.microsoft.com/news. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/news/contactpr.mspx.

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