GARP Expresses Concern for COVID Situation in India
New Delhi: The Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP), the world’s leading risk management association and the provider of the Financial Risk Manager (FRM®) Certification, expresses its heart-felt concern for citizens of India as the country navigates the COVID crisis.
“Our hearts go out to all of India,” GARP President and CEO Richard Apostolik said. “Just as we were all hoping the worst of COVID was over, the situation in India has served as a stark reminder of the pandemic risk the world still faces.”
Due to a strict COVID lockdown in certain states of India, GARP recently announced that it has postponed both parts of the FRM Exam and the Energy Risk Professional (ERP®) Part II Exam that were to take place in mid-May. The FRM Part I and ERP Part II Exams have been postponed until November; FRM Part II has been postponed to December. Some of the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Exams that were scheduled for April have now been deferred to October. GARP is also monitoring the situation closely for the July FRM Part I Exam.
“With India’s financial systems growing increasingly sophisticated and important to the world, education in financial risk management is also more and more important,” said Bill May, Global Head of Certifications and Educational Programs for GARP. “However, we also have to prioritize the health and safety of all exam candidates and the workers who administer the exams. We look forward to the time when restrictions can ease and schedules can become more predictable.”
A combination of factors has led to challenges in Exam scheduling including government-required COVID-related restrictions which led to site changes, exam cancellations, or in-person capacity limitations and restrictions; the scheduling parameters in the new Computer-Based Testing regime; and general uncertainties among candidates regarding their own ability to sit for their Exam this registration cycle. All of this led to a large volume of calls and messages to GARP, resulting in delayed responses to some candidates with some expressing concern that GARP was not aware of rescheduling requests or other candidate inquiries.
“Rest assured that we will answer all questions sent to our Member Services team in as timely a manner as possible,” Apostolik said. “We appreciate your patience in this unprecedented time. We are highly focused on ensuring candidates can sit for their Exams as soon as possible given the highly uncertain environment surrounding the pandemic.”