The global financial crisis brought a new focus on risk management, with nearly 34 percent more institutions reporting to have adopted enterprise risk management programs compared to 2008, according to a survey by Deloitte.

The seventh edition of the report, titled “Navigating in a Changed World,” surveyed chief risk officers, or their equivalent, from 131 financial institutions globally, with aggregate assets of more than $17 trillion. They represent a range of financial services sectors, including banks, insurers and asset managers, Deloitte said.

The survey's lead author, Edward T. Hida II, global leader-Risk & Capital Management, Global Financial Services Industry, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited, noted in his forward remarks that regulatory requirements are being “rethought and fundamentally revised with the goal of reducing systemic risk to the financial system.”

He added, “Therefore, the boards of directors and senior management of financial institutions are reexamining their approaches to risk management, including their risk frameworks, governance and methodologies.”

The survey found that about 90 percent of institutions had a defined risk governance model and approach, and 78 percent reported their board of directors had approved their risk management policy or ERM framework.

With financial regulators around the world focusing on pay and bonus practices, and new rules being proposed in the U.S., the survey found that 37 percent of financial institutions reported they had completely or substantially incorporated risk management considerations into their overall performance goals and compensation decisions.

Insurance institutions said they use a variety of techniques to assess insurance risk, the survey found. About 60 percent cited as either a primary or secondary methodology: stress testing, value at risk, economic capital, and dynamic financial analysis. Institutions also said they use a variety of organizational structures to oversee insurance risks, with no function being named by more than 39 percent of institutions for any risk type.

Deloitte said that based on its risk management surveys, progress has been made in implementing operational risk methodologies since 2008, with 62 percent of executives rating their risk assessments and 54 percent rating their internal loss event data as extremely or very well developed—compared to about 40 percent for each two years ago. For key risk indicators, 30 percent of executives considered them to be well developed in 2010 compared with only 12 percent in 2008, according to the study.

Special Reports /

Risk Management Strengthened By Financial Crisis

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