Andrew Hill from the Financial Times writes there’s risk in relying on risk managers. He also notes that despite Carsten Kengeter’s assertion: “We will not rest until we have controls that are as watertight as possible”, we all know that organizations cannot function without taking any risk. Banks and investment banks are in the business of making money so good luck with that whole resting thing.
Here is a reenactment of how UBS CEO Oswald Gruebel reacted when he learned about the $2 billion fraud. (That is Colin Firth portraying Gruebel on the left.) http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv%3DxJvGE7Vvd4M
A headline today on CBC.ca reads “UBS case latest failure of risk management”. I think I will spend the rest of the day being offended by the CBC. (All will be forgiven if Amanda Lang appears on the National tonight.) Despite all the systems, oversight, controls, compliance, supervision and some other sixth thing, you can’t stop the rogue trader. Adoboli is to blame. His boss is to blame. Maybe culture or performance objectives are to blame. But risk management is not. Saying Risk Management is to blame is like saying the police department should be blamed for a teen committing…
Has Delta Airlines become the Mel Gibson of air travel? As Riskczar.com reported recently, Delta Airlines took a reputation hit because it was charging US soldiers $200 for shelping their four piece of luggage when returning from the War on Terror. Now, they are coming off like anti-Semites. When Delta Airlines took over Northwest Airlines and their Detroit hub, they added Saudi Arabian Airlines to its SkyTeam Alliance of partner airlines. As a result of Saudi’s discriminatory policies, Delta will ban Jews and holders of Israeli passports from boarding flights to the Kingdom. After this story came out, Delta of course had…
Delta. What were you thinking? When a soldier is coming back from war, nothing says thank you and God Bless America like charging him an extra $200 for a fourth bag (containing his weapon no less). Thanks to the often thankless work that the men and women of the military are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq, and at home, there are likely fewer opportunities for bad guys to be flying your multi-million dollar airplanes into stuff. Did you really need that $200 Delta Airlines? Are you with us or the terrorists? How much more will it cost you to repair…
