Managing Operational Risk (Practical Strategies to Identify and Mitigate Operational Risk within Financial Institutions)

Operational risk is the risk of loss from inadequate or failed internal processes, people, and systems or from external events. There are two types of operational risks: catastrophic and non-catastrophic. The vast majority of operational risks are non-catastrophic, i.e., low-loss events that institutions ably contend with every day. Catastrophic operational risks, however, can give rise to losses so extreme that they immediately put the survival of the institution at stake. This book explores the different types of operational risk that threaten financial institutions. After briefly discussing the non-catastrophic operational risks, the author focuses on practical, due-diligence methodologies that institutions can use to identify less-familiar more-lethal catastrophic operational risks before they detonate. Robertson explains that the mitigation and suppression of potentially catastrophic operational risks require an active, human capital intensive inspection program. This book will help organizations develop a program of quality assurance inspections helping to manage operational risk that could prevent the escalating battle against costly, destabilizing, and often destructive operational risks.