risk management and controls are established and maintained. Among its other responsibilities, the Risk Committee also reviews and approves our annual Own Risk and Solvency Assessment report. The Risk Committee assesses the independence and objectivity of Group Risk, approves its terms of reference and reviews its ongoing activities.
Following a recommendation by the Chief Executive Officer, the Risk Committee also conducts a review and provides a recommendation to the Company’s Board of Directors regarding the appointment and/or removal of the Chief Risk Officer. The Risk Committee meets with the Chief Risk Officer in separate executive sessions on a regular basis.
The Finance Committee of our Board oversees our investment of funds and adequacy of financing facilities. This includes approval of our strategic asset allocation plan. The Audit Committee of our Board, which is supported by our internal audit function, is responsible for overseeing internal controls and compliance procedures and also reviews with management and the Chairman of the Risk Committee our guidelines and policies regarding risk assessment and risk management.
Group Executive Level
Our management Executive Committee formulates our business objectives and risk strategy within the overall risk appetite set by our Board. It allocates capital resources and sets limits across the AXIS companies, with the objective of balancing return and risk. While the management Executive Committee is responsible overall for risk management, it has delegated some authority to the executive level Risk Management Committee (“RMC”).
The RMC is responsible for overseeing the integrity and effectiveness of our enterprise risk management framework and ensuring that our risk assumption and risk mitigation activities are consistent with that framework, including a review of the annual business plan relative to our risk limits. In addition to the RMC, the following separate yet complementary management committees and councils focus on particular aspects of our enterprise risk management and align efforts on the delivery of our strategy:
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The Investment and Finance Management Committee oversees our investment activities by, among other things, monitoring market risks, the performance of our investment managers and our asset-liability management, liquidity positions and investment policies and guidelines. The Investment and Finance Management Committee also prepares our strategic asset allocation and presents it to the Finance Committee of the Board for approval.
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The Capital Management Committee oversees the integrity and effectiveness of the AXIS capital management policies, ensuring the Company’s effective implementation of our annual Capital Management Plan, which is approved by the Finance Committee of the Board, and overseeing the availability of capital within the AXIS companies.
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Our recently formed Business Council provides a company-wide view and challenge of underwriting exposures, steering portfolios in alignment with accumulation limits and management appetites. Reporting to the Business Council are the Cyber, Property and Credit Product Boards overseeing the exposure management frameworks and views of risk for our cyber, property and credit underwriting risks. Each Product Board contributes to portfolio management, setting underwriting guidelines and risk appetite, as well as encouraging general knowledge sharing.
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Our recently formed Operations Council oversees business operations and assesses achievement of operational efficiencies across AXIS.
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The Innovations Council, also recently formed, sets priorities for the promotion of the Company’s innovation initiatives in identifying digital transformation and operational efficiency themes to optimize our processes and foster an agile sustainable culture for a future ready AXIS.
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The Reinsurance Security Committee sets out the financial security requirements of our reinsurance counterparties and approves our counterparties, as needed.
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The Cyber, Property and Credit Product Boards oversee the exposure management frameworks and views of risk for our cyber, property and credit underwriting risks. Each product board contributes to portfolio management, setting underwriting guidelines and risk appetite, as well as encouraging general knowledge sharing.
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The Internal Model Committee oversees our internal model framework, including the key model assumptions, methodology and validation framework.
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The Operational Risk Committee oversees our operational risk framework for the identification, management, mitigation and measurement of operational risk and facilitates the embedding of effective operational risk management practices throughout AXIS.