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Fellow Risk Professionals,

I recently told a GRC tale in nine weekly episodes.  The thrust of this GRC case study on a bank’s misadventures is that an enterprise GRC solution can play a vital role in putting a well-validated and efficient process in place, so that even when management, the Board and regulators are looking in the opposite direction, they can have confidence that any significant issues will be brought to their attention and handled in a timely manner so as to minimize any negative

Liquidity has moved further and further up banking executives’ agendas thanks to the growing industry focus as well as regulatory demands for more liquidity to be available in banks. Following the 2008 crash, liquidity has established itself as a risk concern for banks like never before – the failure of Northern Rock was essentially one of liquidity not funds. As a result, liquidity management strategies continue to be at the forefront of any strategic risk plan.

A fundamental challenge for banks

This Post is the first in a set of two Posts looking at PPACA - Sometimes referred to as Obamcare or ACA.  

1) This first Post is to provide background on PPACA with Links to valuable information to answer questions for Brokers, Employers and Carriers.

2) The second Post will provide a Workable, Efficient, and Cost-Effective Strategy for Brokers and Employers to deal with PPACA/Obamacare for the 2013 Plan Year and Beyond.  The time to get started is now!  This will be Posted on Friday after your T

The aftermath of Sandy continues here on the East Coast – especially in New Jersey,  New York and Connecticut area. Yesterday many victims were also negatively affected by a Nor’Easter storm that halted the work and help of many volunteers. This storm brought 60 mph winds and 4-13 inches of snow, record breaking numbers for this time of the year.

Both storms however, have not diminished or weakened the spirits of the people in the these areas. On contrary – it has made them stronger.

One of the gr

It was supposed to be a conspiracy of epic proportions. The U.S. government knew about the threats in Benghazi and did nothing, even when pleas for help came from the Consulate. No other major news organization would follow the story. The CIA called for back-up but was told to “stand down”. U.S. government officials said it was a mob action following the release of a third-rate anti-Islam internet movie, and then changed their story. Could it be any clearer? Why wasn’t anyone doing anything abou

Is China really going to crack-down on corruption? If you believe all the buzz in the U.S. reporting on China’s national political convention (the 18th Communist Party Conference) outgoing party chair and current President Hu Jintao is finally getting serious. In oratory second only to Castro’s multi-hour monologues (minus the Cuban’s firery delivery) Hu went on for a good 100 minutes and made an ominous warning over corruption spoiling the party and threatening the state.

 Full post here: http:/

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Rounding out the top ten - end China ambiguity:

China’s economic rise and increasing military assertiveness have pushed U.S. strategic ambiguity to its limits. If a decisive position isn’t taken soon, allies and friendly countries will question whether the U.S. can back up its Asia pivot talk with action. Focusing on realistic trade liberalization, increased military contacts with China and firm engagement rather than the blame and shame tactics of the past must become a priority.

Full blog post h

What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ~ William Shakespeare 

The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names. ~ Chinese Proverb
At a symposium held by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA) in March 2012, Andrew G. Haldane, Executive Director of Financial Stability for the Bank of England, gave a speech titled, “Towards a common financial language”.[1] Using the imagery of the Tower of Babel, Mr. Haldane descr

The effort today is to develop a Monte Carlo simulation in Excel that works for operational risk losses rather than market or credit risk, where the technique is so often found. The objective is to build a fully working Microsoft Excel model which isn't just statistical theory but actually exemplifies the Monte Carlo simulation process in practice.

Click here to review and download the Monte Carlo example

With another calendar year coming to a close, some supply chain professionals get a chance to take stock, while many others brace themselves for a sudden crescendo of activity that will mercifully relent once January rolls around.  That’s a reality of the supply chain management community: It’s broad and deep and diverse.

There are many job titles that handle many responsibilities in the complex business of moving things on time and on budget in the quantity and of the quality expected; for all

Exclusive 2012 Survey Results! Download the report and get the inside track on the business attitudes and opinions of IT security.

91% of businesses have experienced at least one cyber threat 41% feel they are underprepared. The 2012 Global IT Risk Report - Coping in the Chaos? from Kaspersky explores the attitudes and opinions of 3,300 IT leaders. The report looks at how the global IT community is reacting to today's changing threat landscape and gives their predictions for the future.

Learn mo

In our weekly Inner Circle update. This white paper explores how IT departments at financial institutions are assuming a more proactive role in identifying technologies.

http://globalriskcommunity.com/group/goldmembership

(see the new discussion in the Forum in the Inner Circle group)

p.s. Membership in the Inner Circle is not for everyone, only for those who want to be always up-to-date and "noise-free." Members who join our Inner Circle get the latest research simplified, organized, systematiz

The question today is, does the use of a risk framework such as the one proposed under ISO 31000 reduce risk management disputes between managers in a company?

A possible upside we look for once a risk framework is in full operation, is an improvement in the sharing of risk knowledge and business intel. It could of course go the other way as well; where the risk framework actually does more harm than good and drives bickering or discontinuity between departmental managers?

What did the G31000 foru

I have had some very interesting conversations lately with Boards, Senior Managers and Risk Managers about risk appetite. Here are some insights:

Describing what we mean by risk appetite: Risk appetite is risk speak, however, it can be easily explained. With private sector firms I tend to describe using dollars as the example - "How much capital are you are willing to risk to try and make your forecast profit?" For not-for-profits I tend to bring it back to values - "What are you willing to do to

This week I faced the ultimate personal test of my risk management skills, where I had to soul search “do I practice what I preach as an ERM expert.”. Sunday, the night before the storm of the century Hurricane Sandy hit, I had tickets to fly to Texas as a speaker and expert on ERM. What would become of my home and family? Had I applied the same risk principles in my work as a CEO of the leading enterprise risk management software company in my personal life? Had I done put a personal business c

Meet Joe. Joe is a swaps trader within a small institution that has a straightforward hedging strategy at both the micro and macro level. Being a price-taker, Joe has built and maintained broker relationships that enable him to easily get a swap priced at an acceptable level provided counterparty limits allow. Joe’s back office is practicing weekly collateral exchange with various counterparties in cash. As such, Joe lives in a very comfortable world.

But Joe is in for a nasty surprise. The pract

A big mistake that financial institutions are still making is using Excel as their reconciliation tool of choice. Research we have carried out suggests that in many of the larger financial institutions over 80% of reconciliations are performed in Excel or other user developed applications (UDAs).

The lack of rigorous enterprise-wide tools for ensuring that quality, reconciled auditable data is used to manage the banks’ risk has not gone unnoticed by regulators. The latest report from the Basel C

I am a big believer in the categorisation of risk events and while this may not be popular among many of the non-banking members of the risk community, even more so with ISO 31000 practitioners, I still believe it is an important exercise to carryout.

Either way; I have taken to list ten reasons why causal event categorisation is crucial for the operation of a sound enterprise risk management framework.

The top ten can be found at this LINK