Operational Risk Management

Operational risk management is attracting the attention of academics and professionals worldwide. Academics are interested in this topic because it provides opportunities for the application of sophisticated statistical techniques, as well as lucrative opportunities for consultancy work and challenging questions on how to measure operational risk. For the practitioners, acquiring knowledge of operational risk is more than mere luxury as major banks all around the world have to be Basel 2 compliant within the next two years. Moreover, operational losses have, since the notorious collapse of Barings Bank, been haunting banks' top management, prompting a strive to devise measures that can reduce operational losses and the risk of business collapse. Indeed, it has been demonstrated that an operational loss event could lead to a fall in the market value of the affected firm that is greater than the loss itself.