Earlier this week a UBS banker based in Singapore was detained in China for questioning. Reports vary as to whether the banker was actually held by the authorities or merely prevented from leaving the country and what the questioning actually comprised but what happened after that seems in no doubt.
UBS recommended that its private banking staff reconsider any plans to travel to China until further information was forthcoming.
Other banks including Citigroup, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas and J P Morgan were reported to have followed suit in asking their private banking staff to think again about any plans they might have to travel to China.
Risk management tactics seem to be maturing. They are moving from general guidance about destinations to targeted advice to specific people within specific sectors.
The only organisations that seem to have issued a warning for China are in the financial services sector. There was not a blanket warning for all employees but only for those who worked in private banking, the specialised units which manage the assets and portfolios of wealthy individuals.
Personalisation has been openly in use by suppliers who use individuals' data to help generate bookings and loyalty by targeting their offers and by TMCs and corporates who are aiming to make the traveller booking process even more streamlined by prioritising content according to taste.
Personalisation now seems to be moving into risk management. Risk management was historically about general guidance — areas where caution needed to be exercised because of different cultural norms, natural disasters or a volatile political environment. This is largely because the costs of doing anything more specific have been prohibitive.
It has sometimes been used to support people of a specific nationality or religion. Its applications to individuals has been through traveller tracking which identifies travellers by one factor only, namely location.
It has now expanded into differentiating advice according to sector of the economy and those within organisations who are working in particular units.
That's not tracking. It might mean tagging more data fields or, more realistically, having a platform which can integrate HR or payroll data with travel booking data where people have been tagged in ways beyond their preference for aisle or window such as specific job role and client base.
And now that might even come down to which job is being done for which client.
It might be time to review what data is necessary to ensure traveller safety.