With so many exciting workshops, panels and presentations throughout the AMRAE conference, we caught up with speakers and session leaders to find out what hot topics they will be covering, what risk managers can learn and their take on the biggest risks facing risk managers today. Read more
Stefan Lundbergh*
Across the globe there are more uncontrollable fires, an increasing number of severe hurricanes, longer periods of droughts and warmer winters. The consequences of climate change are becoming more tangible. As long-term investors, we need to consider the extent to which our investments are prepared for a changing climate. Generally certain – Specifically uncertain. Read more
Chris Buckley and
At critical turning points, Chinese authorities put secrecy and order ahead of openly confronting the growing crisis and risking public alarm or political embarrassment. Read more
“A mysterious illness had stricken seven patients at a hospital, and a doctor tried to warn his medical school classmates. “Quarantined in the emergency department,” the doctor, Li Wenliang, wrote in an online chat group on Dec. 30, referring to patients.”
Simon Kuper
The Netherlands has learnt to manage flooding. Climate-threatened countries are taking note. On the afternoon of January 31 1953, the sea off the Dutch coast rose so high that it attracted sightseers. Just after 6pm, national radio warned of “dangerous high water”. That was almost the only notice given. Read more
Utrecht University
The largest evacuation ever in the Netherlands due to flood risk is 25 years ago this winter. 250,000 people had to leave their homes in river areas due to the dangerous high water levels of the Rhine, Maas and Waal. Several water researchers at Utrecht University have personal memories of this. They reminisce on those days and look into the future. Are we ready for more rising water?
“Extremely hectic days, you can hardly imagine it now without cell phones and the internet, the most modern means of communication being the fax machine”, says Herman Havekes, Professor by Special Appointment: Public organisation of (decentralised) water management at Utrecht University. On January 31, the water level at Lobith reached a record height of 16.63 meters above sea level. Back than, Havekes worked (and is still working) at the Dutch Union of regional Water Authorities.
Jim Boehm, James M. Kaplan, Peter Merrath, Thomas Poppensieker and Tobias Stähle
New cyberrisk management information systems provide executives with the risk transparency they need to transform organizational cyberresilience. Executives in all sectors have deepened their understanding of the dangers cyberrisk poses to their business. As hacks, cyberattacks, and data leaks proliferate in industry after industry, a holistic, enterprise-wide approach to cybersecurity has become a priority on board agendas. Read more
“Risk decision makers reserve particular criticism for governance-risk-compliance (GRC) systems. These complex software solutions can take years to implement and rarely produce a satisfying result. Like many risk-management systems, GRC software was created by technicians, and specialized expertise is required to make sense of the output.”
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization on Twitter today: “WHO deeply regrets the error in this week’s situation report, which inserted the word “moderate” inaccurately in the #coronavirus global risk assessment. This was a human error in preparing the report. I have repeatedly stated the high risk of the outbreak bit.ly/2U52h0x“.
The last time democracy nearly died all over the world and almost all at once, Americans argued about it, and then they tried to fix it. “The future of democracy is topic number one in the animated discussion going on all over America,” a contributor to the New York Times wrote in 1937. Read more
Humanity continues to face two simultaneous existential dangers—nuclear war and climate change— that are compounded by a threat multiplier, cyber-enabled information warfare, that undercuts society’s ability to respond. The international security situation is dire, not just because these threats exist, but because world leaders have allowed the international political infrastructure for managing them to erode. Read more
Video “The World Economic Forum stands for multilateralism, global cooperation, listening to each other, and ideas for the future.
Some say the global order as we have built together in these 50 years is outdated. And whether we agree or not, we all have to recognise that it has been challenged every day.
This is not about one President, one country or one party. It is a global phenomenon driven by personal sentiments. People feel that their workplace is changing before their eyes. They are worried about the future of their families, or their business. They stick to all the rules, they give their very best every day, and no matter how hard they try, they feel the world is moving faster.
There are different ways to deal with these obvious changes. You can either move forward at the exclusion of others – like restricting the internet, fueling nationalism, building on the narrative of ‘us versus them’. Or you can take an inclusive approach: Cooperate with your neighbours, bring to the table scientists from all over the world, connect your businesses and your innovators to create new markets and sustainable jobs.
These are the answers people are asking for. They are ready to change, but they want to see that they can make a good living. We need to upgrade and modernise international fora to find solutions among nations. This creates common ground. And you need leadership to take it to the next level. Read more
Simon Grima and Frank Bezzina
Following the economic and financial crises, any activity involv ing internal controls, especially risk management, has been given more attention. With this study, we aim to contribute further to the existing literature on risk management by looking at practices adopted by financial services firms licenced in Europe with a Mediterranean connection. We used parts of a questionnaire adopted by two of the authors in another study on risk management practices adopted by Maltese financial services firms and sent it to prospective candidates who work closely within risk management, to collect our data. This resulted in 1635 participants.
This data was used to (1) bring to light the mechanisms and strategies used in risk management by these organisations to maximise their opportunities, manage their risks, and maintain stability in their financials. Also, (2) we check if this is perceived as contributing to ‘principled performance’. Finally, (3) we examine the extent to which risk manage ment capabilities offer a competitive advantage to these firms. Our findings evidence that the objective by EMP and the EU, that is to ensure that members operate ‘on the same level playing field’ within risk management, in financial services of firms with a Euro-Mediterranean connection, has been achieved.
“Any organisation’s strategy needs to deal with an uncertain environment. Therefore, organisational strategic choices will determine the organisation’s exposure to an uncertain environmental and constituents that impact their performance. “Exposure” defined as the sensitivity of an organisation’s cash flows to changes in interrelated uncertain variables. The emphasis of organisation on specific particular (particularist view) rather than multidimensional uncertainties is a significant shortcoming. The former view of isolating specific uncertainties, excludes other interrelated uncertain variables. In fact, literature in financial services emphasises uncertainties for which hedging or insurance instruments can be designed to manage organisation exposures, however omitting some uncertainties that are encountered in the overall management strategic decisions. The alternative view is where management takes a general approach to risk and gives explicit consideration to numerous uncertainties (integrated risk management perspective) [18].”
Keywords: risk management, financial services industry, risk management frameworks, Euro-Mediterranean, principled performance.
Simon Grima and Frank Bezzina (November 5th 2018). Risk Management Practices Adopted by European Financial Firms with a Mediterranean Connection, Perspectives on Risk, Assessment and Management Paradigms, Ali G. Hessami, IntechOpen, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.80640. Available from: https://www.intechopen.com/books/perspectives-on-risk-assessment-and-management-paradigms/risk-management-practices-adopted-by-european-financial-firms-with-a-mediterranean-connection
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In the 2009 and Max accidents, for example, the failure of a single sensor caused systems to misfire, with catastrophic results, and Boeing had not provided pilots with information that could have helped them react to the malfunction. The earlier accident “represents such a sentinel event that was never taken seriously,” said Sidney Dekker, an aviation safety expert who was commissioned by the Dutch Safety Board to analyze the crash.
“Dr. Dekker’s study accused Boeing of trying to deflect attention from its own “design shortcomings” and other mistakes with “hardly credible” statements that admonished pilots to be more vigilant, according to a copy reviewed by The Times.”
