International risk management standard approved

MELBOURNE, Australia—Members of the International Organization for Standardization have endorsed the first international standard for risk management.

The ISO 31000:2009 standard will be available in October, after finalization of the ISO Guide 73:2009 of international standards, said Kevin W. Knight, convener of the ISO Working Group on Risk Management and a director with the Risk Management Institution of Australasia in Melbourne, Australia.

The ISO standard draws heavily from a standard used by the Standards Australia/Standards New Zealand Joint Technical Committee on Risk Management, which has already approved adoption of the standard AS/NZS/ISO 31000:2009 to replace its AS/NZS 4360:2004 standard, Mr. Knight said in an e-mail. The Australia-New Zealand version of the new standard should be available in about six weeks, he said.

The standard is aimed at giving risk managers, particularly those with multinational organizations, an approach that is more applicable to their operations than the Australia-New Zealand standard, which was written with a regional focus, industry officials said late last year.

The international risk management standard provides generic guidelines that can be used by any industry or organization, and is applicable to all risks, according to ISO. It, however, is not intended to provide any type of certification.