● Winning at Risk: Strategies to Go Beyond Basel
By Annetta Cortez
Excerpt via publisher, Wiley
Since risk plays an absolutely crucial role in a financial institution’s very existence, you would expect it would know virtually everything about risk. You would expect all of the institution’s executives, managers, and employees to possess a strong understanding of risk, and you would expect the institution to have specialists in every aspect of measuring and managing risk. You would also expect the institution to have developed a common language for discussing and evaluating risk with maximum clarity and transparency. Chances are good, however, that reality would not live up to your expectations. Not because your expectations are unreasonable; in fact, they are quite reasonable… You can’t really understand finance unless you understand risk. You can’t just skip over the risk component of finance. That would be like taking an advanced class in molecular biology without first understanding basic chemistry. It ain’t gonna happen—or if it does, watch out. And that’s why risk management must be a core competency and primary capability of every financial institution. Instead, risk management is often considered a burden, something that controls and restricts legitimate business activities without adding any real value.
Daily Archives: June 10, 2011
A New Survey On The Economy Offers A Bit Of Optimism
The economic news in recent weeks suggests that the recovery has hit a rough patch, but at least one forward-looking review of the macro trend says the rearview mirror may be misleading. The 35 economists in yesterday’s update of the biannual Livingston Survey—the longest-running continuous set of predictions by dismal scientists—see moderately improving conditions in the second half of this year.