With over two decades of expertise in governance, risk, and compliance, Caryl-Ann Colaco has played a pivotal role in shaping risk frameworks, advancing AI and data-driven risk insights, and establishing key first and second-line risk and control functions within global financial services organizations.
In an engaging interaction with Women Entrepreneurs Review Magazine, Caryl-Ann shared her insights on the evolving risk landscape in the finance industry, focusing on technology, compliance, and the role of women leaders in balancing growth with effective risk oversight amidst emerging challenges and cyber threats.
How is the current risk landscape in the finance industry evolving? How are organizations, especially those led by women in senior roles, adapting their risk strategies to navigate emerging challenges?
The 2025 risk landscape in the finance industry is dynamic and increasingly complex, with firms facing a broad array of pressures. The focus is on non-financial risks such as technology disruption, data privacy, resilience, third-party risks, cybersecurity, and increasing interdependencies, with new regulations addressing technological advancements and financial crime. Financial risks continue to be managed in the wake of global geopolitical tensions and economic downturns.
In such an environment, organisations led by women in senior roles are adapting their risk strategies with a focus on proactive and customer-centric risk management, continuous learning, and the adoption of Artificial Intelligence and Analytics to enhance risk monitoring, cybersecurity, and compliance programmes. Integrating ESG into risk strategies and fostering inclusive leadership are also actively adopted by women leaders to navigate the evolving and multifaceted risk landscape effectively.
Given the accelerated adoption of technology within the finance industry, what role do women leaders play in shaping technology risk management?
In my experience, women leaders offer a holistic approach to risk strategies, blending technical expertise, business acumen, ethical decision-making, and inclusive leadership. This integrated approach is pivotal in technology risk management, as technologies like AI become an integral part of the workplace.
Women leaders strongly advocate integrating Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) factors into operational resilience strategies, addressing immediate risks and broader sustainability and ethical considerations, enhancing the organisation’s overall resilience.
Women leaders adopting a comprehensive approach enable building trust, and a key focus is on developing fintech solutions in ways that are fair, transparent, resilient, and aligned with regulatory and social requirements.
How can organizations balance the need for growth with the need for effective risk oversight? What specific contributions do you see women leaders making in ensuring this balance is struck?
Proactive and customer-centric risk management is a key enabler for growth, aligned to the organisation’s risk appetite. Successful organisations integrate risk management into their business strategy to enable growth, as they need to monitor financial markets, products, customer sentiment, and supply chain risks, to formulate their business strategy in respect of product diversification, entering new markets, digital transformation or focusing on sustainability goals. For example, financial services firms focus on ESG considerations in their investments to contribute positively to environmental and social outcomes while delivering financial returns.
Women leaders adopt a holistic approach to risk management, considering customer needs with financial, operational, regulatory, and reputational risks, into business strategies. Aligning growth strategies with ethical standards and regulatory requirements builds trust, which is vital to building strong brand value.
In a competitive market, firms with an ethically strong brand attract socially conscious consumers, investors, and talent, leading to long-term success with sustainable and resilient growth initiatives. Women leaders tend to be strong collaborators, promoting buy-in and alignment on growth and proactive risk management strategies within the firm.
How do financial institutions effectively cultivate a risk-aware culture? How do women leaders impact the development of this culture?
At M&G Global, fostering a proactive risk culture is a multifaceted approach that involves several key strategies and initiatives. I am privileged to be part of a Leadership team where women leaders have a strong voice. Here are some examples of how we achieve a proactive, risk-aware culture:
Tone from the top: Senior Women Leaders from the Business and Risk and Compliance functions champion a strong and proactive risk culture through sponsoring Risk Awareness initiatives, being visible and promoting the messaging on the importance and need for a proactive risk culture.
Embedding the Risk Framework: We focus on embedding the risk framework and processes through regular training and awareness programmes for employees and risk processes to assess and improve our control environment.
Risk and Compliance Academy and Risk Awareness Week: We have developed and successfully delivered these initiatives to provide training and resources to enhance the skills and knowledge of our employees in risk management.
Incentives and Recognition: We have a Rewards and Recognition programme to recognise positive behaviours and good risk management practices.
In addition, we emphasize cross-department collaboration, clear communication about risk management and tools like leveraging data analytics to identify and mitigate risks proactively. We measure the success of these initiatives through our established risk and control environment metrics, thus enhancing operational resilience and compliance within the organisation.
With the convergence of operational and technology risks becoming a focal point for organizations, how can women leaders spearhead the development of more integrated risk management systems that align operational goals with resilience, compliance, and assurance requirements?
The accelerated adoption of technology within the finance industry has created new opportunities for women, not just in traditional STEM roles but also in techno-functional positions. These roles require a blend of technical expertise, business acumen, and agility to cope with evolving regulatory requirements; for example, roles in data governance, data privacy, business systems analysts, project and product management, cyber security, risk management, and assurance. Women leaders value diverse perspectives and are well-suited for techno-functional roles, bridging the gap between Technology and business functions, where understanding the technological, regulatory, commercial, and business implications of new solutions is essential.
Women leaders emphasize problem-solving, teamwork and collaboration and , fostering an inclusive environment where diverse viewpoints are valued. This collaborative approach leads to integrated risk assessments and innovative solutions to address key operational objectives, while addressing resilience risks and compliance requirements.
As the financial services industry grapples with evolving cyber threats, how do you see the risk management function evolving? What unique insights can women in leadership roles bring to the table in ensuring that technology risk frameworks are adaptable to future disruptions?
The financial services industry is increasingly leveraging advanced technologies like Artificial Intelligence and data analytics to enhance cybersecurity with comprehensive cyber risk policies, setting clear risk appetites, and implementing risk assessment processes. This requires cross-collaboration with Technology, Business, Risk and Compliance, third-party providers and overseeing AI service providers. Additionally, cyber risk strategies include enhanced incident response capabilities through regular drills, updated response plans, and ensuring employee awareness of their responsibility and vigilance in safeguarding systems and data from phishing attacks, cyber threats, and in the event of a cyber incident.
Women in leadership roles bring a wealth of unique capabilities that significantly enhance the security and adaptability of technology risk frameworks. They encourage collaboration and teamwork, fostering an inclusive environment where diverse viewpoints are valued. As effective risk management is pervasive, requiring collaboration across various departments; this collaborative approach leads to more adaptable, resilient, and innovative solutions, with the cultivation of new ideas demanded by our complex business environment. Continuous improvement, learning, and adoption of new technology promotes agile risk management strategies, responsive to future disruptions.
By leveraging these unique insights, women in leadership roles play a key role in strengthening technology risk frameworks that are not only secure but also adaptable to future disruptions.
