Wherever there are people there is culture. The challenge for a firm is to ensure an appropriate culture that aligns the attitudes, behaviours and conduct of its workforce with its strategic and governance objectives. From the Global Financial Crisis to the LIBOR and countless other financial scandals, the consequences of getting  this wrong are severe. Both corporate governance and financial services regulators have taken note, and often require firms to not only understand, but control their culture in an appropriate manner. An organisation’s culture, and by extension its risk culture, are both a source of strength and weakness when it comes to risk management. An appropriate risk culture will ensure that staff accept the importance of effective risk management and behave in a manner consistent with the organisation’s operational risk policies, procedures, and appetite. An inappropriate risk culture can be both a cause of risk events and a mechanism for intensifying their impact.

The course will start by looking at the factors that can cause risk cultures to change and evolve over-time, including the issue of risk sub-cultures. A case study of a bank will be used to illustrate the types of factors that can influence risk culture. We will then consider how risk culture can be assessed and monitored. An example risk culture survey tool will be provided, and you will learn from the experiences of an insurance company that attempted to use such a tool. In addition, example risk culture metrics will be discussed. The course will conclude with a look at some tools and techniques for managing risk culture. Topics will include: ‘tone from the top’; the role of the risk culture; and training. Again, we will revisit the bank case study to learn from real world experience.

By the end of this workshop we will cover:  

• How risk culture can affect risk taking and risk management in your organisation.
• The perils and pitfalls of assessing risk culture using survey tools.
• Monitoring risk culture using metrics.
• Practical techniques that can be used to change your risk culture.
• The experiences of other financial institutions using two real-world case studies