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Systems Risk

"Systems Risk" is in the position that Operational Risk was a decade ago (pre Basel II) in that everyone knows that Information Technology is a major issue in Financial Services but the industry has not found satisfactory ways of analysing and measuring the associated risks. Many business surveys point to IT being of vital interest to Boards and senior management, but we (the IT profession) keep screwing up - I would argue because, in part, neither the IT function nor business has yet learned how to manage risk.

Animal Farm

"All firms are created equal, but some firms are more equal than others" - Animal Farm

Continue reading "Animal Farm"

Posted by Patrick McConnell at 12:30 AM | Comments (0)

Through the Looking Glass

Alice in Wonderland: If you drink much from a bottle marked "poison" it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later.

Continue reading "Through the Looking Glass"

Posted by Patrick McConnell at 11:45 PM | Comments (1)

When the Circus left Town

Some say Wall Street is like Las Vegas; it is not - it is like Coney Island.

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 04:12 AM | Comments (1)

Principles for a new Regulatory Paradigm

(Almost) everyone agrees that financial regulation needs an overhaul - but how? How about changing the focus of regulation?

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 06:42 AM | Comments (2)

Grande Bouffe II - French Farce

In all the gloom of the Credit Crisis, banking regulation in France can always be guaranteed to put a smile on one's face.

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 04:43 AM | Comments (0)

The Wealth of (Non) Nations

Does the Credit Crisis herald the end of the Nation State, if not in Politics and Economics but, maybe, in Finance?

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 04:35 AM | Comments (1)

A Confidence of Crisis

"At least I mean what I say -- that's the same thing, you know, [as I say what I mean]" Alice in Wonderland.

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 05:30 AM | Comments (0)

The Slippery Slope

Like skiers on a Giant Slalom, European banking regulators appear to be engaged in a frantic race to the bottom - of regulatory competence that is.

Continue reading "The Slippery Slope"

Posted by Patrick McConnell at 04:07 AM | Comments (0)

Losses! Wot Losses?

Lost: One Moral Compass. Hardly ever used. If found, please return to Wall Street.

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 03:41 PM | Comments (1)

La Grande Bouffe

The French are past masters of the art of Farce and the French Banking Commission are determined to uphold this great tradition.

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 05:51 PM | Comments (2)

Basel II or Babel II?

And so it came to pass!
[Genesis 11:1-9] 'And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech' and they said 'Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven.'

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 04:26 PM | Comments (3)

SG + PWC = MIA

Societe Generale's report into the Kerviel 'affaire' is a whitewash!

While this is not entirely surprising, it is perplexing that, after so much criticism of large audit firms in previous scandals, PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC) has allowed its good name to be used to bolster such an obvious snow job.

Continue reading "SG + PWC = MIA"

Posted by Patrick McConnell at 04:35 PM | Comments (4)

Risk Management - It's all in the numbers

Sometime in the next 18 months, the International Standards Organization (ISO) will produce its long awaited 'standard' on risk management - ISO 31000. When published, the risk management profession will go into one of its periodic paroxysms of navel gazing on the efficacy of risk management standards.

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Posted by Patrick McConnell at 01:55 PM | Comments (2)

Sex in the City (of London)

A recent experiment in neuroscience found that young men made bad financial decisions when thinking about sex - who would ever have believed that? The implications of the study for risk management are intriguing.

Continue reading "Sex in the City (of London)"

Posted by Patrick McConnell at 05:05 AM | Comments (0)

Fiasco at Heathrow Airport - a case of People Risk

It may be foolish to do a post-mortem on a patient who is still alive - but, here goes anyway. The opening of the new Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport London is simultaneously both a risk management triumph and a PR disaster. How come? One word: people - pesky, unpredictable people!

Continue reading "Fiasco at Heathrow Airport - a case of People Risk"

Posted by Patrick McConnell at 05:08 AM | Comments (1)

Patrick McConnell


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