Operational Risk Management: an Evolving Discipline
Operational Risk Management: An Evolving Discipline Operational risk is not a new concept in scope. Before attempting to define the the banking industry. Risks associated term, it is essential to understand that with operational failures stemming from operational risk is present in all activities events such as processing errors, internal of an organization. As a result, some of and external fraud, legal claims, and the earliest practitioners defined opera- business disruptions have existed at tional risk as every risk source that lies financial institutions since the inception outside the areas covered by market risk of banking. As this article will discuss, and credit risk. But this definition of one of the great challenges in systemati- operational risk includes several other cally managing these types of risks is risks (such as interest rate, liquidity, and that operational losses can be quite strategic risk) that banks manage and diverse in their nature and highly unpre- does not lend itself to the management dictable in their overall financial impact. of operational risk per se. As part of the revised Basel framework,1 the Basel Banks have traditionally relied on Committee on Banking Supervision set appropriate internal processes, audit forth the following definition: programs, insurance protection, and other risk management tools to counter- Operational risk is defined as the act various aspects of operational risk. risk of loss resulting from inadequate These tools remain of paramount impor- or failed internal processes, people, tance; however, growing complexity in and systems or from external events. the banking industry, several large and This definition includes legal risk, but widely publicized operational losses in excludes strategic and reputational recent years, and a changing regulatory risk.
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