Morgan’s mess

JPMorgan’s $2B trading loss is pretty big news, but some other big news, if you are interested in ERM, came early in the conference call. (You’ll have to sign up to listen.) “We’d shown average VaR at $67″ million for the chief investment office, CEO Jamie Dimon said. “it will now be $129″ million. (Educational [...]

ORSA: The heart of ERM

I’ve stolen and paraphrased Gideon Benari at Solvency II Wire, as he calls the Own Risk and Solvency Assessment “the heart of Solvency II.” But ORSAs are coming to the United States, with the NAIC developing guidelines for large companies to report on their ORSAs. With the Europeans building the ORSA portion of Pillar II, [...]

Fortune favors an actuary

Via Claire Wilkinson at the III blog, a young actuary makes good. Really good: As I was sitting in the doctor’s waiting room the other day leafing through the latest issue of Fortune magazine, I couldn’t help but notice Fortune’s 40 under 40. This annual ranking highlights the hottest young stars in business across the [...]

Solvency II thumbs up (mostly) for Bermuda, Switzerland, Japan

I was hoping someone else would slog through today’s reports by EIOPA, the EU’s uber-quasi-regulator. Thanks, Reuters! LONDON, Oct 26 (Reuters) – European insurance watchdog EIOPA has said Bermuda’s regulatory regime for big insurers mostly complies with its own strict Solvency II rules, easing fears of a mismatch that could have hindered Bermudian players’ access [...]

Hank Greenberg, Chief Risk Officer

One of the points I tried to make in my Contingencies article about AIG was that Hank Greenberg, the CEO who built the company, was the ultimate risk manager. When he was forced out, no one else could control the enterprise. Now Risk and Insurance has a whole article around the idea, including an interview [...]

CAS joins the CERA party

CAS Recognized as CERA Award Signatory. As announced in August, the CAS requirements to qualify for the CERA designation include CAS Associateship requirements plus credit for CAS Exams 7 and 9, or attainment of the CAS Fellowship designation, plus participation in a rigorous three-day seminar and successful completion of the U.K. ST-9 Enterprise Risk Management [...]

The AIG saga: ERM lessons

I reviewed Fatal Risk: A Cautionary Tale of AIG’s Corporate Suicide for Contingencies magazine this month. To quote myself: Boyd, a veteran Wall Street journalist, writes that AIG’s demise was a suicide, though AIG’s behavior was no more suicidal than a chain smoker’s—a series of unforced errors compounding. Though he doesn’t emphasize it, Boyd’s story [...]

On ERM credential, CAS hits the pause button

If you were a casualty actuary studying to become a certified ERM expert, you might want to put your books down. Last night the Casualty Actuarial Society blogged that it was changing requirements to become a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst – before the original requirements were even in place. The analyst designation, usually abbreviated CERA, [...]

ERM challenge: Show the boss you can help

ERM guru Dave Ingram cites a business school analysis (pdf) of 18 corporate crises from 1999 to 2008. Seven causes emerged: Inadequate board skills and inability of board members to exercise control Blindness to inherent risks, such as risks to the business model or reputation Inadequate leadership on ethics and culture Defective internal communication and information flow Organizational complexity [...]

Phone hacking and ERM

The British phone hacking scandal is a classic tale of how reputational risk can cripple a company. Even so, I don’t think News Corp. will be ramping up an ERM program. Background: Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. since 2005 has been fighting allegations that its News of the World newspaper hacked into the cell phones of [...]