Category
Risk Management

Since 2009, financial services’ compliance functions have undergone drastic changes and modifications and the pandemic only elevated them further. Banking institutions are now looking for a more efficient and streamlined compliance model to actively define and shape the firm’s next strategy and operational excellence. 

As the risk environment continues to increase in complexity, it has never been more critical for risk managers to be strategic business partners. When enterprise risk management is aligned with business strategy, it can positively impact the organization’s revenue growth.

The recent economic downturn, conflicts in Ukraine, rising inflation and interest rates, and the slumping of the global economy indicate that a sharper slowdown in the global economic activity is most likely inevitable. 

Risk is often associated with note-worthy incidents or high-profile events, such as data breaches, natural disasters, health crises, or high-level corruption. However, the risk is not just the vulnerability to massive disruption, it is a product of uncertainty, and uncertainty is a constant. Uncertainty is not necessarily a bad thing, markets, and supply chains ebb and flows, regulations change and adapt to new conditions, and the industry evolves to maintain competitiveness. Along the way, many disruptions will arise. Risk assessment is the disciple of navigating that uncertainty, maintaining momentum through the small challenges, assessing the impact, and preparing to meet the difficult ones.

Integrated Risk Management (IRM) Framework views and analyzes risks that are unique to the organization and utilizes technology and effective procedures and practices in order to produce the most effective outcome. It is important to remember that improper risk management can be detrimental. The business may sink if it arranges its resources in a manner that has not fully prepared for every possibility.

The world of compliance risk management is in a constant state of change. Because of this, organizations continuously struggle to ensure that their business operations are compliant not only with governmental regulations but also with ethical values. With this in mind, it seems that compliance teams worldwide are constantly playing catch up in determining what business units, departments, and processes are prone to compliance failures and which are not. Being behind on this process can be extremely dangerous to the organization as compliance failure can lead to a plethora of fines, setbacks, and a diminishing reputation among customers. It would seem to many compliance teams that nothing short of the ability to predict the future is suitable enough to identify and prevent emerging risks effectively. A compliance risks analysis may be able to give organizations exactly what they need to build a robust compliance program better and better mitigate the potential of emerging risk.

After Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, has come forward with the accusation that Facebook puts profit before the safety of people, the platform’s reputation has gone down the tubes. In another example, the 2016 account fraud scandal tarnished Wells Fargo’s reputation, and it faced tremendous backlash from shareholders and customers. Wells Fargo was considered one of the most reputed brands in the US till the account fraud scandal came out in 2016. The bank had to pay around $3 billion to settle its probes and fines.

The consequences that come with being non-compliant is huge. Considering the stringent regulatory requirements, internationally agreed on industry standards, and the need for internal efficiencies, it is imperative that organizations are proactive about compliance. But, staying on track with changing laws, regulations, and standards is a tedious process. Compliance automation can help solve these complex problems – streamline business processes, automate routine tasks, generate arduous reports in seconds and most importantly… improve overall organizational efficiency.

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Risk management is the process of identifying, assessing, and managing risks in an organization. In times of uncertainties, the organization looks to risk managers to make crucial decisions about risk management and mitigation. Risk officers are required to bring all stakeholders on the same page and decide on the organization’s risk appetite. Risk appetite and risk tolerance are the two essential concepts in risk management around which misconceptions and confusion are prevalent.

In the modern-day market and workplace, risk is a part and parcel of business operations. Considering the shift to remote working, threats and potential vulnerabilities are ever present, which is why risk management is now a top priority. As a matter of fact, in 2021, General Data Protection Regulation fines rose by around 40%. Big names like the Marriott and British Airways incurred fines of $23.8 million and $26 million, respectively, for data breaches. This is the cost of poor risk assessment and management controls in today’s economic climate. Thankfully, auditors and risk management teams can get ahead of such problem areas with clearly defined key risk indicators (KRIs).

Gartner research shows that only the better-prepared enterprise firms developed contingency plans much before situations worsened in the wake of the unprecedented Coronavirus pandemic. With obvious management and operational risks, and additional cybersecurity risks (there was a 273% rise in cyber attacks in Q1 alone), risk management has become essential for enterprises to both survive and thrive.

Every organization faces certain types of risks in business. Any factor that threatens an organization’s ability to achieve its goal is considered a business risk. The major categories of risks to consider are: strategic risks, compliance risks, financial risks, and operational risks. Another important way to categorize risk is based on the source of the risk and see whether they are internal or external risks.

Compliance is one of the most important challenges for any banking institution operating in today’s market. Non-compliance has consequences, and in 2020 alone, several banks received major fines amounting to $11.39 billion. U.S. banks Goldman Sachs, Wells Fargo, and JP Morgan Chase paid upwards of $7.50 billion toward this total tally, indicating that even the sector leader isn’t immune. Naturally, any form of negligence within this realm of operation can lead to big losses, especially considering how strict legislation has become in the sector.

An organization needs to analyze risks that might occur and find ways to prevent them or reduce their impact. It helps them to act confidently on essential business decisions. Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks and taking steps to reduce risks to an acceptable level. In first, organizations need to identify and prioritize risks. Once they identify the risks, they need to conduct an in-depth assessment of risks. A risk assessment matrix plays a significant role in risk management. It is an essential tool that helps identify and prioritize risks by evaluating the likelihood of a risk occurring and the severity of each risk if it were to happen. It is a method of improving the visibility of an organization’s risks with an assessment based on multiplying the likelihood that a risk will occur by its impact on the organization.

Compliance risks are defined as the risks that result from violations of laws, regulations, codes of conduct, or organizational standards of practice. Compliance risk management is a part of compliance management and it helps identify, assess, and monitor and manage risks that might cause because of non-compliance. Compliance requirements differ from sectors to sectors. The government and regulatory agencies specify rules and regulations based on which companies in a particular sector should do business. For example, banks and financial institutions face the most complicated regulatory environment.

Historically, the banking sector has always been plagued by vulnerabilities and risks. The global financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 is an indicator of this fact. Robust risk and compliance management programs and use of technology have helped banks to make good progress on the risk management front. While these control systems and risk management protocols are constantly evolving, operational risk always remains a concern.

Cyber threats have grown from being plausible to probable. With organizations becoming more dependent on the internet, social media, and digitization, exposure to cyber risk has also increased manifold. Today, cyber security is among the top priorities of organizations world-wide simply because a cyber-attack can leave your organization in a dilapidated state – untethered from information systems and unable to provide services, owning a handful of compromised data, and staring at massive reputation loss.

Risks are inevitable in business. Businesses must reduce their exposure to risks and find ways to mitigate them to remain competitive in business. Identification and acknowledgement of risks that affect the operations, profitability, security, or reputation of the business is the first step. Developing strategies to mitigate these risks is the next and the most essential step! Risk mitigation is an important step in risk management that includes identifying the risk, assessing the risk, and mitigating the risk.

Etymologically, the word resilience has roots in the Latin term resiliere, which means ‘to rebound’. In similar vein, operational resilience describes an organization’ stability to cope with change or misfortune. The ongoing global pandemic, COVID 19 is an extreme form of misfortune, but its impact has been so universal that it has laid bare each organization’s level of operational resilience and sparked renewed interest in the topic.

Every business has some inherent risks that it must deal with. As the name suggests, a risk register forms a central repository for all risk-related information for an organization. This includes the type of risks, the impact they may have on an organization, and the risk management plans of the company.

Business continuity risk refers to threats that disrupt the functioning of a business. These threats maybe any untoward incidents or disasters that negatively impact an organization.

Compliance takes work. Surprise audits, producing relevant documentation, coordinating compliance needs across your organization, assigning responsibilities–the list is endless.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has laid down various rules and regulations for registered investment advisors (RIA.s), to prevent fraud and unlawful activities. One of the activities that a RIA must undertake to ensure that they comply with all of SEC’s requirements is an internal risk assessment of their firm.

Impact of Covid-19

Covid 19 has upended normal life as we know it. Apart from a gigantic impact on the economy as a whole, the pandemic has also put the future of credit unions at risk. In this article, we’ll be examining the impact of Covid 19 on credit unions, steps to manage the impact, and a quick checklist for credit unions to manage risk in uncertain time

As a healthcare nonprofit, you have the opportunity to impact thousands of lives. However, being a healthcare nonprofit comes with it’s fair share of regulatory and organizational issues that can affect your long term future. In this article, we’ll take a look at the common compliance requirements of healthcare non-profits.