RISK IS TOPPING HEADLINES:

“Liquidity Risk Tops Regulation on Bankers’ List of Concerns”
Liquidity has replaced regulation as bankers’ biggest concern, according to an annual study by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation. This year’s “Banking Banana Skins” report showed that for the first time, widening credit spreads and the use of derivatives are the banking industry’s biggest perceived risks. Over-regulation, which topped the chart last year, fell to eight place in 2008.
Bloomberg.com, May 6, 2008

“Economic Storms & the Elements of Risk”
With the confluence of plummeting housing values, the credit crunch, rising oil prices and core inflation dragging the economy into uncharted territory, lenders are reevaluating whether existing analytical models used to predict risk and delinquencies are adequate.
Collections & Credit Risk, May 2008

“Changes Continue as Wamu Names New Risk Chief”
Washington Mutual Inc. made another leadership change Tuesday in its effort to improve oversight of risk management and clean up its mortgage mess. The $320 billon-asset Seattle thrift company said that its top risk officer, Ronald J. Cathcart, has left, and that John P. McMurray, an executive who joined Wamu from Countrywide Financial Corp last year, succeeded him. Read More.
American Banker, April 30, 2008

“The Crisis So Far: Risk Management Returns”
The most assertive steps bankers have take in righting the ship have focused on risk management. It has taken only about $240 billion of writedowns – and additional billions in spiraling credit provisions – for bankers to become born-again risk zealots. Chief risk officers now sit on the executive committee of every large banking company in the country, and may investment banks. Holding the red flag, and maybe even throwing it, has become cool. Read More.
American Banker, Wednesday, April 23, 2008

“The Lessons of Risk Management”
While we wait for the results of the investigation into the meltdown at Societe Generale, there are some immediate lessons to be drawn for any organization involved in trading activity, the most important of which is to make sure you have robust and resilient risk management systems in place.
Advanced Trading, April 16, 2008

“Changes to Basel Planned On Holdings, Liquidity Risk”
International regulators are poised to offer sweeping changes to the Basel II capital rule in the coming months to address some of the most troubling weaknesses in the banking regulation exposed by the credit crunch. Read More.
American Banker, April 14, 2008

“Finance Firms Vow to Do Self-Cleaning”
Banks must improve risk management, disclosure and compensation practices to forestall a repeat of the current crisis, a finance industry group said Wednesday. But it shrugged off suggestions that further regulation is needed, foreshadowing likely tussles between industry officials and policy makers at a gathering of the world’s top economic leaders in Washington this weekend.
The Wall Street Journal, April 10, 2008