Posts Tagged ‘ enterprise risk ’

Risk management oldies but goodies

October 12, 2011

The good folks at Riskviews got me thinking about my least read posts. I’ve been doing this for a few years and understand that no one wants to scroll through over 300 blog entries to find some gems from 2006. So here are a few items you may have missed that might be worth your time. A Common Sense Approach to ERM In a sentence, The Riskczar says the common sense approach to describing the process of risk management like this: First you identify your risks, you figure out which ones are the most important, next you decide how to…

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G20 update – Day 3

June 23, 2010

Day 3. Yawn. All is still quiet. Perhaps this is the equivalent of the opening act: people only show up for the headliner and the opening acts often play to a partially filled venue. Headliner goes on the main stage on Friday. I took a walk in the PATH yesterday afternoon - this is the underground network of malls and paths that connect all the buildings in the downtown. It was nice to see dozens of private security folks and police officers walking around trying not to be too bored. It felt safe and unlike what I suppose seeing armed police at the…

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G20 update – Day 2

June 22, 2010

Day 2 starts with rain in Toronto. There was a minor protest yesterday afternoon for people protesting that they had nothing important to protest. Or maybe they were protesting poverty. One guy was busted by a cop on a bike for having some pot. I counted at least 100 cops on my walk down to Union Station last night and almost as many on my 3 block walk up to King today. I love seeing that show of force: cops from Toronto, Peel Region and York Region every 15-20 feet, two-by-two. For all the uneasiness that I felt seeing those…

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AXA’s ERM lowered by S&P

March 31, 2010

I re-post these press releases from time to time from the S&P as a way to bring awareness to enterprise risk management and how the rating agency’s review of their capability plays into their overall rating. This is the first time that I have see an explicit worsening in an ERM capability in these ratings. I suppose it is possible but I am curious how one goes from excellent to strong once you build the processes and capabilities? S&P said the units’ ratings — which were lowered one notch to AA- from AA, or three steps under the highest rating…

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Jihad risk

March 5, 2010

I read recently that Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi has called for Muslims to declare a jihad against Switzerland. Apparently this is the result of a Swiss ban on minarets (tall spires) in the construction of mosques and nothing to do with one of Gaddafi’s son’s being arrested in 2008. Nothing. The Colonel also noted that he would invade Switzerland if the two shared a common border. Lucky thing for the Swiss. This got me wondering if any risk managers in Switzerland are losing sleep over this. If you were a CRO at a Swiss bank, watch manufacturer or cheese…

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ERM in manufacturing

March 3, 2010

Here’s an article we do not see very often (read: never). Joseph Allred, a CPA from Texas, writes about the value of ERM in a manufacturing organization. Although the content is consistent with what many of us often write about, I found it refreshing to focus on a non-financial for a change. The author does articulate his points nicely about the difficulty implementing ERM: ERM has been difficult to implement primarily because organizations approach it as a massive project. Initially, combining distributed risk management efforts is a big job. It takes time to migrate from the old risk-management model that…

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CFOs and risk management are just friends

March 2, 2010

According to a study based on conversations with almost 2000 global CFOs (that includes 17 of the DJIA companies), they love risk management. (Well maybe “love” is a strong word; maybe saying CFOs and risk management are “friends” is better.) According to Bill Fuessler, who co-authored the study, CFOs “are moving away from their transaction activities–and paying more attention to the integration of data” and ” the CFO position has evolved into a much more strategic role as they take on more involvement with risk management.” (Maybe “friends” is also too strong a word. Maybe it is more accurate to…

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Hofmann writes about Tiger Woods and ERM

January 5, 2010

Mark A Hoffman writes in Business Insurance about a few topics near and dear to me: Tiger Woods and enterprise risk management. Have a read at this article and then search for some of the Tiger Woods-related posts published at Riskczar.com recently. Cautionary tales of Tiger and ERM Posted On: Jan. 03, 2010 6:00 AM CST Will 2010 see continued progress toward the adoption of enterprise risk management approaches in public and private endeavors? That’s a question I’ve been pondering the past few weeks. At least a couple of news stories involve ERM issues, even though “enterprise risk management” appeared…

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Catlin’s enterprise risk management efforts raised to ‘Strong’

December 30, 2009

Another upgrade courtesy of good ERM. What are you people waiting for? Call me already. Or forward this to your CFO. Here’s the article from news-insurances.com: Catlin Group Limited, the international speciality property/casualty insurer and reinsurer, has been rated to to ‘A’ from ‘A-’ from Standard & Poor’s Rating Services. “The rating and assessment upgrades primarily reflect the improved financial profile of the Group,” Standard & Poor’s said in an announcement issued today. “The ratings and assessment also reflect Catlin’s strong competitive position, strong operating performance, strong capitalisation and strong enterprise risk management,” the announcement said. Specifically, Standard & Poor’s…

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Is there a best practice ERM framework?

December 17, 2009

Raef Lawson, Vice President of Research and Professor-in-Residence for the Institute of Management Accountants was interviewed in The Hindu Business Line and asked about the COSO ERM framework. Q: Do you foresee that eventually COSO framework will be considered as the best practice on enterprise risk management? A: We are not sure there really is a single best practice framework as that implies that there has been a high level of adoption of ERM as a business process/practice in the US and around the world, which unfortunately is not the case. With that said, COSO is one of several global…

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