Since the launch of the Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) Program in 1997, more than 320,000 Chinese candidates have taken the FRM Exam, with over 25,000 Certified FRMs employed at major financial institutions across the country.
But as the demands of modern financial risk management continue to evolve with the ongoing growth of such risk drivers as AI, cybersecurity and climate change, what is the outlook for China’s FRM-Certified and FRM-prospective professionals? To answer that question, we need to examine the key findings of GARP’s new report, “Emerging Trends and Career Insights in China’s Financial Risk Management.”
Culled from the survey responses of 2,025 China-based risk professionals — including FRM-Certified Professional and non-certified risk managers — the report looks at patterns in promotions and salaries, hiring predictions, career development and much more. Forty-seven percent of respondents came from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen; 50% from the rest of Mainland China; and 3% from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan or overseas.
While the report is limited to China and Chinese professionals, its findings offer useful insights about the relevance and demand for the FRM Program overall, as well as the state of the risk profession around the world. Here are five takeaways:
- FRM-Certified Professionals have become a cornerstone of China’s banking industry. Among the top 10 global employers that hire the most FRM-Certified Professionals, three are large, state-owned commercial banks. Overall, 41% of the respondents work in banking; this includes state-owned commercial banks (15%), city commercial banks (10%), joint-stock banks (8%), foreign banks (4%) and rural commercial banks (4%).
- Risk team sizes are expected to grow. Seventy-four percent of surveyed risk managers in China predict their risk teams to imminently expand or stay the same size, while only 5% of respondents believe their risk management teams will decrease in size. In terms of pre-existing team size, 18% of respondents currently work in organizations with risk teams consisting of more than 500 people, while 39% work in organizations with risk teams of over 100 people.
- Risk managers are moving up the corporate ladder. Thirty-seven percent of respondents received a promotion within the past two years, while 13% of young professionals with an FRM Certification and less than three years of experience have already been promoted to intermediate management positions. Moreover, the incomes of FRM-Certified Professionals range from 13% to 29% higher than those of the non-certified professionals.
- Professional development and upskilling are top priorities for China’s financial risk managers — and they’re willing to self-fund, if necessary. The survey shows that 82% of respondents have recently participated in career development pursuits, with popular activities including online training/eLearning (42%), a professional certification or designation (34%), books/journals (26%), external professional training/courses (25%) and in-house corporate training (20%). Aside from in-house corporate training, the primary source of funding for other career development activities is self-funding (78%).
- China’s risk managers find the FRM Program beneficial for both their current job and job searching. Overall, 80% of respondents expressed a desire to enhance their professional knowledge and competence through the FRM Program, while more than 83% of those who participated in the program further stated that the knowledge covered is genuinely beneficial for their daily work. Other common reasons for participation included increasing job mobilities (65%), increasing promotion opportunities (50%), obtaining international recognition (41%), increasing salary (39%) and developing an industry network (21%).
To get additional insights, please download “Emerging Trends and Career Insights in China’s Financial Risk Management" below.
Dean Essner is a senior copywriter at GARP.
