Risk management an issue of growing importance to credit unions, as reflected in the increasing control and reporting requirements imposed by regulatory bodies such as APRA and the establishment of operations risk management standards such as AS/NZS 4360:1999.

Therefore, during 2007 the Shared Services group of credit unions reviewed the available Operations Risk Management software to identify a suitable solution. The software was assessed against a broad range of criteria which included:

• simplicity in establishment and use (most credit unions do not have a dedicated risk manager)
• low cost (Shared Services was seeking economies of scale for multiple credit unions)
• risk benchmarking between credit unions (comparison of risks and mitigation strategies)
• user flexibility (with different access rights)
• the ability for the software to operate in multiple locations
• recording of loss events and breaches of policy
• flexible reporting to MS Office

Shared Services found that much of the available software was relatively complex to use and would generate an administrative burden. In addition, some solutions were quite expensive, containing extensive functionality which would not be used by many credit unions.

The result is Decipherisk, a fully supported operations risk management system that provides a complete solution, purpose built for credit unions.