ORRF to become for-profit organisation

LONDON -- The Operational Risk Research Forum (ORRF) -- founded several years ago as a kind of not-for-profit academic think tank for op risk executives based in London -- is reformulating and splitting into two.

Chairman Brendon Young has changed the status of ORRF to be a for-profit limited company. This came as a bit of a shock to some involved in ORRF, who would have preferred it remain as it was. As a result, John Thirlwell and David Clark, both directors of ORRF, are shifting their focus to the Institute for Operational Risk, which was founded in 2004. Both are said to be giving up their involvement in ORRF. "They will be two separate entities," says Thirlwell, although he denied rumours of an acrimonious split.

For his part, Young likened the separation of ORRF and the Institute to British Telecom spinning off Vodafone, and said that ORRF would provide the Institute with services at cost or for free. Young also indicated that while ORRF would focus on firm training, the Institute would concentrate on providing qualifications exams and training for individual op risk executives.

Young says long-term funding for the Institute has been secured -- it was launched with the patronage of industry-leading lights such as Jeremy Quick, head of operational risk at Lloyds TSB, and Victor Dowd, an associate director at Aon. Both are former regulators with the UK’s Financial Services Authority. OpRisk