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Types of Risks Part 2 of 2

Here you will find additional readings on some risks highleted in Part 1

 

  1. Enterprise Risk

  2. Credit Risk

  3. Market Risk

  4. Operation Risk

 

Original source obtained here!

 

 Enterprise Risk Management

 

Enterprise risk management (ERM) is an organization’s enterprise risk competence—the ability to understand, control, and articulate the nature and level of risks taken in pursuit of business strategies—coupled with accountability for risks taken and activities engaged in, which contributes to increased confidence shown by stakeholders.

 

The basic concept of enterprise risk management has been applied, more or less, in several industries for well over a decade. The changing regulatory environment, economic turmoil, and growing complexity of products, tools, and risks has, among other influences, helped to launch the practice of enterprise risk management into the financial services area. In this respect ERM—in the banking world—is very much in its early development, though much progress has been made.

 

By definition, the business of banking exposes the organization to a wide variety of risks. The ERM framework is designed to support the depth and breadth of activities by providing a structured approach for identifying, measuring, controlling, and reporting on the significant risks faced by an organization. Specific risk management (e.g., credit, operational, market), capital management, and liquidity management provide the essential underpinnings to an ERM framework.

 

What is ERM? Click each link below

 

Credit Risk Management

 

Credit Risk In the past, managing the credit portfolio was considered good risk management. But in today's broader, more complex environment, best-practice institutions understand that they need to measure and manage risk across the entire enterprise.

 

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While financial institutions have faced difficulties over the years for a multitude of reasons, the major cause of serious banking problems continues to be directly related to lax credit standards for borrowers and counterparties, poor portfolio risk management, or a lack of attention to changes in economic or other circumstances that can lead to a deterioration in the credit standing of a bank's counterparties. This experience is common in both G-10 and non-G-10 countries.

 

Credit risk is most simply defined as the potential that a bank borrower or counterparty will fail to meet its obligations in accordance with agreed terms. The goal of credit risk management is to maximise a bank's risk-adjusted rate of return by maintaining credit risk exposure within acceptable parameters. Banks need to manage the credit risk inherent in the entire portfolio as well as the risk in individual credits or transactions. Banks should also consider the relationships between credit risk and other risks. The effective management of credit risk is a critical component of a comprehensive approach to risk management and essential to the long-term success of any banking organisation.

 

 For most banks, loans are the largest and most obvious source of credit risk; however, other sources of credit risk exist throughout the activities of a bank, including in the banking book and in the trading book, and both on and off the balance sheet. Banks are increasingly facing credit risk (or counterparty risk) in various financial instruments other than loans, including acceptances, interbank transactions, trade financing, foreign exchange transactions, financial futures, swaps, bonds, equities, options, and in the extension of commitments and guarantees, and the settlement of transactions.

 

Since exposure to credit risk continues to be the leading source of problems in banks world-wide, banks and their supervisors should be able to draw useful lessons from past experiences. Banks should now have a keen awareness of the need to identify, measure, monitor and control credit risk as well as to determine that they hold adequate capital against these risks and that they are adequately compensated for risks incurred. The Basel Committee is issuing this document in order to encourage banking supervisors globally to promote sound practices for managing credit risk. Although the principles contained in this paper are most clearly applicable to the business of lending, they should be applied to all activities where credit risk is present.

 

The sound practices set out in this document specifically address the following areas: (i) establishing an appropriate credit risk environment; (ii) operating under a sound credit-granting process; (iii) maintaining an appropriate credit administration, measurement and monitoring process; and (iv) ensuring adequate controls over credit risk. Although specific credit risk management practices may differ among banks depending upon the nature and complexity of their credit activities, a comprehensive credit risk management program will address these four areas. These practices should also be applied in conjunction with sound practices related to the assessment of asset quality, the adequacy of provisions and reserves, and the disclosure of credit risk, all of which have been addressed in other recent Basel Committee documents.

 

While the exact approach chosen by individual supervisors will depend on a host of factors, including their on-site and off-site supervisory techniques and the degree to which external auditors are also used in the supervisory function, all members of the Basel Committee agree that the principles set out in this paper should be used in evaluating a bank's credit risk management system. Supervisory expectations for the credit risk management approach used by individual banks should be commensurate with the scope and sophistication of the bank's activities. For smaller or less sophisticated banks, supervisors need to determine that the credit risk management approach used is sufficient for their activities and that they have instilled sufficient risk-return discipline in their credit risk management processes.

 

The Committee stipulates in Sections II through VI of the paper, principles for banking supervisory authorities to apply in assessing bank's credit risk management systems. In addition, the appendix provides an overview of credit problems commonly seen by supervisors.

 

A further particular instance of credit risk relates to the process of settling financial transactions. If one side of a transaction is settled but the other fails, a loss may be incurred that is equal to the principal amount of the transaction. Even if one party is simply late in settling, then the other party may incur a loss relating to missed investment opportunities. Settlement risk (i.e. the risk that the completion or settlement of a financial transaction will fail to take place as expected) thus includes elements of liquidity, market, operational and reputational risk as well as credit risk. The level of risk is determined by the particular arrangements for settlement. Factors in such arrangements that have a bearing on credit risk include: the timing of the exchange of value; payment/settlement finality; and the role of intermediaries and clearing houses.

 

Market Risk Management

 

Market risk is the risk that the value of an investment will decrease due to moves in market factors.  Volatility frequently refers to the standard deviation of the change in value of a financial instrument with a specific time horizon. It is often used to quantify the risk of the instrument over that time period. Volatility is typically expressed in annualized terms, and it may either be an absolute number ($5) or a fraction of the initial value (5%).

 

Examples, Types, or Variations

 

The four standard market risk factors include:
 

  • Equity risk, or the risk that stock prices will change.

  • Interest rate risk, or the risk that interest rates will change.

  • Currency risk, or the risk that foreign exchange rates will change.

  • Commodity risk, or the risk that commodity prices (i.e. grains, metals, etc.) will change.

 

Sometimes, a fifth risk factors is also considered: Equity index risk, or the risk that stock or other index prices will change adversely.

 

Market risk is typically measured using a Value at Risk methodology. Value at risk is well established as a risk management technique, but it contains a number of limiting assumptions that constrain its accuracy. The first assumption is that the composition of the portfolio measured remains unchanged over the single period of the model. For short time horizons, this limiting assumption is often regarded as acceptable. For longer time horizons, many of the transactions in the portfolio may mature during the modeling period. Intervening cash flow, embedded options, changes in floating rate interest rates, and so on are ignored in this single period modeling technique.

Market risk can also be contrasted with Specific risk, which measures the risk of a decrease in ones investment due to a change in a specific industry or sector, as opposed to a market-wide move.

 

Operational Risk Management

Operational risk is defined as the risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems, or from external events, but is better viewed as the risk arising from the execution of an institution’s business functions. Operational risk exists in every organization, regardless of size or complexity from the largest institutions to regional and community banks. Examples of operational risk include risks arising from hurricanes, computer hacking, internal and external fraud, the failure to adhere to internal policies, and others. For much of the past decade, the industry has been focused on measuring operational risk losses for capital allocation purposes, but in recent years has increased the focus on managing operational risk.

 

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CLASS ACTIVITIES WILL BE COMPLETED FACE TO FACE ON 23/9/2015

 

 

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