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Despite the current economic turmoil, we have recently witnessed a frenetic race for ultra low latency, privileging speed over costs. But now the reality of these decisions is catching up and trading institutions are finding that the fastest is not always the strongest – much like the hare and the tortoise.

Being lean and controlling costs is a new priority for banks, focusing on their core business. We are seeing major changes in strategy, with organisations moving away from the extremely risky

Melanie Mailly-Demont, a speaker at the marcus evans CFO Summit XXV Fall 2012, on how CFOs can add more value to their organization.

Interview with: Melanie Mailly-Demont, Chief Financial Officer, Infilco Degremont

Las Vegas, NV, September 18, 2012 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) should not be afraid to ask questions to the experts in the field, advises Melanie Mailly-Demont, Chief Financial Officer, Infilco Degremont. “It is part of the CFO’s role to bring a fresh perspe

After almost two years since the Dodd-Frank Act (DFA) was put on the statute books, the first swap-related articles finally take effect on 12^th October this year. Now everyone can be assured they are trading, clearing and reporting under a common set of rules, right?

Not so. While DFA requires market participants to report OTC trades to Swap Data Repositories (SDR) and introduces conduct business rules, other jurisdictions have not yet finalised their respective regulations. A regulatory conundru

Our partners at marcus evans conducted an interview with Mr. Nick Galletti, Director - Risk Management at ConEd recently and kindly gave us a preferential permission to publish it on our website.

Looking back over my most popular blogs, there was a lot of interest in "5 Steps for Better Risk Assessments" back in March this year. Due to this interest I have created a complimentary 25 minute on-demand video webinar on this same subject complete with detailed "how to" examples and visuals that are not possible in a blog format.

Click here to watch this On Demand Webinar or read the full invitation below:

On-Demand Complimentary Webinar Invitation:

Risk managers are charged with ensuring transp

In November 2009 I contemplated  "Should Board Audit and Risk Committees be Separate?"  and today I question "Should a Board have a risk committee at all?"

In 2009 I concluded:

• Management's responsibility is to identify, manage and report on risk with a predefined risk appetite which has been established in consultation with the oversight body, most commonly a Board of Directors or an Advisory Board.

• The Board has an "assurer role" to provide stakeholders with assurance that management has done the

Errors in financial models that banks use on a daily basis could lead to tremendous financial and non-financial losses. It is crucial for banks to understand how they could minimize and manage model risk effectively. In addition, the OCC and the Federal Reserve have recently released new guidelines on model risk management, which will significantly modify their existing model risk management practices.

Antton Barandiaran answered a series of questions written by GFMI before the forthcoming Model

“[…] The financial crisis that began in 2007 had its origins precisely in over-complex regulation.”

These are the wise words of Niall Ferguson, Professor of History at Harvard, speaking at this year’s BBC Reith Lectures. He goes on to cite Dodd-Frank as a near-perfect example of excessive complexity in legislation.

Those of you who had the pleasure of sifting through the proposed rules, discussion papers, and guidance will agree that the inherent complexity is immense. The recent Dodd-Frank progre

The Wheatley Review of Libor has been published and is carried on the HM treasury website. There are several points worth noting in this initial discussion paper, some of which have been summarised here.

[Click here to continue reading]

Risk Appetite is loosely defined as "the affinity a person has for taking risk when attempting to meet a specific objective".

This concept of risk appetite differs from person to person or business to business and interestingly you will find that a person's risk appetite changes as they age.

In this blog we look at risk appetite; what it is, where it has been used and why it is important.

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Enterprise Risk Management 2012 (NYC, October 17-18, www.erm-usa.com) is North America's premier ERM Congress addressing the critical challenges being faced by FIs, energy utilities and corporations of all sizes.

If you haven't registered your place yet, here are 10 reasons not to miss this years Congress:

1. Understand how CROs from Santander, Credit Suisse and RBS are taking an integrated approach to risk management
2. Hear the Chief Risk Policy Officer at PNC and Deputy Comptroller and Co-Chair of the

Interview with Houman B. Shadab, Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School

Houman B. Shadab is an Associate Professor of Law at New York Law School. He is an internationally recognized expert in financial law and regulation whose research focuses on hedge funds, derivatives, and securitization. Professor Shadab is a director of the Center on Financial Services Law and the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Taxation and Regulation of Financial Institutions.

marcus evans had the privilege to

Melton L. Spivak, a speaker at the marcus evans Tax Officers Summit XIV 2012, stresses the importance of having an international network of contacts to help construct a global tax strategy.

Interview with: Melton L. Spivak, Vice President of Property Tax, JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Tax Officers must continuously build an education around the changes in tax laws and procedures, says Melton L. Spivak, Vice President of Property Tax, JPMorgan Chase & Co. Developing a matrix system that is relative to the

Just three years ago the G20 leaders agreed upon a common course to regulate the financial markets, with focus on standardising OTC derivatives. In that time regulators have created the largest reform packages since the dawn of modern financial history including Dodd-Frank and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR).

But are market participants prepared to cope with the consequences of these regulatory behemoths? With regards to OTC derivatives, under the new rules, these are suppose

Michael Hainkel, a speaker at the marcus evans Tax Officers Summit XIV 2012, focuses on how information can be shared within organizations to increase tax savings and the role of Tax Officers as advisors.

Interview with: Michael Hainkel, Senior Vice President, Tax, Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation    

Las Vegas, NV, August 29, 2012 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Tax Officers must be conscious of future legislation that may be enacted, so that they can help influe

The past 24 months have seen a number of man-made and natural disasters bring risk management demands to the forefront of executives and board directors. Whether these have been natural disasters, such as the Japanese Tsunami or man-made disasters, such as the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, fat-tail disasters have created a renewed interest in enterprise risk management (ERM) practices.

Although demand for these practices and the discussion level for their use is high inside the C-suite of many corpor

modeFinance has now released on the Apple Store and Android Play the new version of "s-peek credit rating & financial report" (www.s-peek.com), the first mobile application that allows you, for free, to get the credit rating, commercial credit, together with financial information of more than 20 million European companies.

This new version features two major improvements: the search of the company and automatically monitoring the presence of new ratings of the companies that attracts your interes