FRM Salary | India | USA | UK | Singapore | Top Employers

Financial Risk Manager (FRM) exam is a globally acknowledged designation awarded by Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) which equips professionals with financial risk assessment and risk management skills. The primary focus of FRM is on helping professionals become acquainted with the principles of managing market risk, credit risk and liquidity risk along with non-market financial risks. FRMs constitute an exclusive global community of nearly 30,000-strong GARP professionals, a majority of them working with some of the top employers in the financial industry. FRM-qualified professionals usually have a much better compensation as compared with their non-credentialed counterparts, bringing added value to the designation.

A wealth of information is readily available about the prerequisites, exam details and exam preparation strategies for FRM. However, there is comparatively scarce information available on salary package, bonuses and overall trends related to financial compensation for FRM-qualified professionals. In the course of this article, we would be solely focusing on the aspect of financial compensation for the benefit of the readers.

• Significance of FRM Certification
• Average FRM Salaries in US
• Average FRM Salaries in UK
• Average FRM Salaries in Singapore
• Average FRM Salaries in India
• Popular Career Roles for FRM Professionals
• What Kind of Employers Look for FRM Professionals
• Top FRM Employing Industries
• Top FRM Employers Across Industries
• How Can FRM Salary -Related Information be Useful for Professionals?

Significance of FRM Certification

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Though we have already provided information in brief on FRM, it would be important dwell on the significance of this designation to be able to understand how it helps shape a financial career, which ultimately decides what kind of compensation one receives. It goes without saying that FRM is a highly specialized risk management designation which helps acquire necessary skills and knowledge of risk management in specific areas and it is this specialized nature of the designation which makes it such a potentially rewarding designation in terms of financial growth.

Average FRM Certification Salaries in US

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Average salaries for Financial Risk Manager stands anywhere between $50,000 and $125,000 in US.

source: Payscale

FRM Salary Ranges by Career Role in US:

• Risk Analyst : Average annual salary stands at $82,424
• Credit Risk Manager : Average annual salary – $123,000
• Vice President, Finance : Average annual salary – $90,000
• Senior Internal Auditor : Average annual salary – $88,437
• Financial Analyst : Average annual salary – $50,868

Average FRM Salaries in UK

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Average salaries for Financial Risk Manager in UK stands anywhere between $35,265 and $57,200 in UK.

source: Payscale

FRM Certification Salary Ranges by Career Role in UK:

• Risk Manager : Average annual salary stands at $57,200
• Investment Analyst : Average annual salary – $38,660
• Credit Risk Analyst : Average annual salary – $35,265

Average FRM Salaries in Singapore

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Average salaries for Financial Risk Manager stands anywhere between S$63,200 and S$111,841 in Singapore.

source: Payscale

FRM Salary Ranges by Career Role in Singapore:

• Risk Manager : Average annual salary stands at S$111,841
• Risk Analyst : Average annual salary – S$63,200

Average FRM Salaries in India

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Average salaries for Financial Risk Manager stands anywhere between INR 776,000 and INR 1,236,504 in India.

source: Payscale

FRM Certification Salary Ranges by Career Role in India:

• AVP, Market Risk : Average annual salary stands in the range of INR1,236,504 – INR2,908,740
• Risk Analyst : Average annual salary – INR800,000
• Senior Business Analyst : Average annual salary stands at INR890,000
• Risk Manager : Average annual salary stands at INR1,047,619
• Financial Analyst : Average annual salary stands at INR776,000

Geographically speaking, FRM Certified professionals might be able to explore some of the best professional growth opportunities in US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore and China along with other locations. It may not be so easy to pinpoint the kind of money a financial risk manager stands to earn as it depends on a number of relevant factors including the industry experience a financial risk manager has. Academics can also have a role to play in deciding how much a professional stands to earn.

A comparison of FRM certification salary from Indeed.com provides us with different figures. The salaries could be different because the average salary is for the job that matches the keyword “FRM”. This means that these are salaries offered for new job posts, not salaries that risk managers are earning in their current jobs.

source: indeed.com

Other factors which might influence the remuneration could include geographical location and the size of an employer among other things.

Popular Career Roles for FRM Professionals

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Some of the popular professionals roles fit for FRM certified professionals include several specialized Financial Manager and Financial Analyst or related positions. Some of these are

1. Financial Manager
2. Risk Qualification Manager
3. Corporate Risk Director
4. Risk Management Analytics Consultant
5. Regulatory Risk Analyst
6. Analytics Client Consultant
7. Operational Risk Analyst
8. Credit Risk Specialist
9. Enterprise Risk Manager
10. Large Enterprise Commercial Risk Manager.

Each of these career roles offer varying work opportunities and remuneration as well as growth prospects might differ significantly. Again, a lot depends on the employer and what kind of growth prospects are available to an individual. Next, we will try to understand what kind of employers root for FRM-certified professionals and why.

What Kind of Employers Look for FRM Professionals

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FRM is more of a specialized certification, as we have already discussed, which is aimed at helping professionals acquire an in-depth understanding of various forms of financial risks including potential credit risk, operational risk, liquidity risk and market risk along with non-market financial risks. It must be remembered that financial institutions and banks have to deal with these forms of risk on a regular basis which is why they are always looking to hire professionals with requisite knowledge and skillset, making FRM a preferred choice of risk management credential. On a broader level, risk management has acquired a whole new meaning in the post- 2008 era where banks and financial institutions realized how things can potentially go wrong despite the best of capabilities in financial management and underlying risks need to be managed with a higher level of finesse.

No wonder, banks and financial institutions were almost forced to reassess their priorities and give risk management its rightful place under the sun. As a result, the demand for risk management professionals is on the rise and a majority of high-profile employers prefer to hire accredited professionals, who enjoy a higher level of credibility in their eyes. FRM being one such specialized credential, its value has naturally gone up with time and some of the top employers for FRM include asset management firms, investment banks, government agencies, corporations, global financial services firms and auditing firms among others.

Top FRM Employing Industries

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Here is a list of the top industries which employ FRM certified professionals:

• Investment Banks
• Commercial Banks
• Central Banks of Countries
• Asset Management Companies
• Insurance Companies
• Credit Rating Companies
• Government and Regulatory Agencies
• Consulting Firms
• Hedge Funds
• Professional Service Firms

Top FRM Employers Across Industries 

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Here are some of the top employers from different industries which regularly employ FRM-certified professionals for their risk management capabilities.

S. No.	Top Companies	Top Global Banks	Top Global Hedge Funds	Top Global Asset Management Firms	Top Global Insurance Companies
1.	ICBC	ICBC	Bridgewater Associates	BlackRock	AXA Equitable
2.	HSBC	China Construction Bank Corporation	Man Group	SSgA	Allianz
3.	Bank of China	JPMorgan Chase & Co	Brevan Howard Asset Management	Fidelity Investments	Metlife Inc.
4.	PwC	Bank of China	Och-Ziff Capital Management Group	Vangaurd Group	Prudential
5.	UBS	HSBC Holdings	BlueCrest Capital Management	J.P. Morgan Asset Management	AIG
6.	Citi	Wells Fargo & Co	J.P. Morgan	PIMCO	Generali Group
7.	KPMG	Agricultural Bank of China	Credit Suisse	BNY Mellon Asset	Legal & General Group
8.	Agricultural Bank of China	BNP Paribas	BlackRock	Capital Research & Management Co	Aviva
9.	Ernst & Young	Banco Santander		Amundi	Manulife
10.	Deutsche Bank	Goldman Sachs		Goldman Sachs	AEGON
11.	Standard Chartered Bank	Citigroup		Prudential Financial	CNP Assurances
12.	Credit Suisse	Itaú Unibanco Holding		Deutsche Asset Management	Berkshire Hathaway
13.	Deloitte	Banco do Brasil		AXA Investment Managers	Zurich Insurance
14.	JP Morgan	Barclays		BNP Paribas	Ping An
15.	Barclays	Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group		Legg Mason Inc.
16.	Samsung	Banco Bradesco		Franklin Templeton Investments
17.	ING	Crédit Agricole		Northern Trust
18.	Bank of Communications	Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group		Wellington Management
19.	Bank of America	Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria		Invesco
20.	BBVA	UBS		MetLife Inc.
21.		Westpac Banking Corporation
22.		Groupe BPCE
23.		Sberbank of Russia
24.		Bank of Communications
25.		Société Générale

 

FRM certified are also recrited by top Global Professional Service Firms including PricewaterhouseCoopers, Deloitte & Touche, Ernst & Young, KPMG

How Can FRM Salary -Related Information be Useful for Professionals?

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It goes without saying that FRM offers some of the finest career prospects and growth opportunities are immense depending on the skillset, knowledge, academics and professional experience of a professional.

Now, the most important question that remains to be addressed is how do you put the FRM salary information for professionals made available here or elsewhere. The whole point of the discussion is that before making the choice of FRM as a certification program, it would be important to understand what kind of career prospects it might offer. Especially, if one has in mind the kind of career role for which they are planning and preparing, this kind of specific information can help decide if FRM would be a suitable choice of certification to prepare for a certain career role and what kind of remuneration one might expect on completion of the certification program. These can be useful pointers and have a direct impact on the choice of career path and certification, which usually go hand in hand.

As a general rule, higher academics and a good amount of professional work experience are some of the prerequisites to carve out a successful career in financial risk management and related roles after completing FRM.

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