Risk Culture: What It Is and How It Affects an Insurer's Risk Management

This article conceptualizes risk culture and sheds light on the role it plays in insurers’ risk management frameworks. The article follows a cognitive, dynamic approach, arguing that risk culture is the product of organizational learning about what has or has not worked for it in the past. Within their local context, the members of a group learn which of the typically centrally prescribed formal risk management policies and procedures and which espoused risk philosophies actually work in practice in the sense of behavior that is formally or informally encouraged or discouraged, rewarded or punished. While the formal risk management framework defines which processes to use, which limits to obey, and which values to aspire to, it is the risk culture that defines which rules and norms are perceived to be rational and important. The insurance literature commonly argues, and practice suggests, that it is necessary to achieve consistency in order to effectively embed risk management. Nevertheless, inconsistent basic assumptions at the deepest level of risk culture are a likely feature of local subgroups. However, what is rational and efficient to one subgroup might be random and dangerous for the organization as a whole.     

What Companies Need to Know About International Cross‐Listing

This article addresses four questions about cross‐listing by non‐U.S. companies on a U.S. stock exchange: Why do companies cross‐list? Does a U.S. listing increase firm value? If so, what are the sources of the increased valuation? And finally, how has the Sarbanes‐Oxley Act (SOX) affected the value of a U.S. listing? Both managerial surveys and academic research show that companies list in the U.S. to increase visibility and share liquidity, to broaden their shareholder base, to gain access to cheaper financing and reduce the cost of capital, and, in some cases, to implement a global business strategy. Foreign companies also typically cross‐list after periods of strong market performance and experience a positive valuation effect around the time of listing, but then underperform the market in the period after the cross‐listing. On average, cross‐listed companies exhibit higher valuations than their home‐market peers, but with significant variation based on firm characteristics: The valuation premiums are larger for smaller companies with higher past sales growth, higher ROAs, and lower financial leverage. In the long run, the companies that show a permanent increase in valuation are those that succeed in expanding their U.S. shareholder base and improving their levels of shareholder protection. Finally, the evidence suggests that SOX, while perhaps deterring some would‐be overseas listings, has not seriously eroded the net benefits of a U.S. listing.     

任重道远 励志弘毅——商业银行需加强信息科技风险防范与管理

现代银行业作为知识密集型产业,信息科技在其运营、管理和创新等各个领域的战略核心作用正日益彰显,呈现出业务对科技高依赖性的鲜明特征.     

Why European Banks Are Undercapitalized and What Should Be Done About It

Major European banks are significantly undercapitalized as compared to large American banks, and, more importantly, as compared to the capital levels they would need to survive another severe financial crisis. Bank capital shortfalls in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, in particular, are largely the consequence of European bank regulations that: (1) apply static risk weights to assets like mortgages and sovereign debt; (2) fail to require an overall market‐based capital ratio that is high enough to enable banks to survive a severe financial crisis; (3) fail to get banks to promptly write down their impaired assets to market value; (4) subject banks to weak stress tests that can create a false impression of capital adequacy; and (5) fail to compel banks to retain sufficient earnings and to raise sufficient capital externally to eliminate capital shortfalls promptly, all apparently out of fear that being tougher might cause investors and customers to lose confidence in the banks. This article summarizes important recent independent bank stress testing that has quantified the capital shortfalls in European banks. The recent highly publicized regulatory interventions to resolve failing European banks were inevitable due to these shortfalls. The authors recommend steps European bank regulators should take to address the problem and to eliminate the risk of serious capital shortfalls. In the absence of such steps, bank depositors, customers, and security holders should be prepared to expect further unwelcome surprises as the risks inherent in allowing undercapitalized banks to operate will continue to materialize in more bank failures.     

Three Approaches to Risk Management—and How and Why Swedish Companies Use Them

Companies can manage risk by using derivatives or through operational hedging. But there is a third possibility: to leave their operating cash flows unhedged while ensuring that the firm has access to external finance in adverse states of the world. This article reports the findings of a recent survey of over 800 Swedish companies that aims to shed light on the relative importance of these three risk management methods, as well as how they interact in corporate risk management programs. The results show that risk management practices aimed at ensuring access to external finance are the main method used by the largest number of companies, followed by operational hedging methods and financial hedging with derivatives. Large companies hedge using both operational methods and derivatives, whereas small firms are less likely to use derivatives but nevertheless attach great importance to the other two ways of managing risk. Even among the largest companies, operational hedging tends to deemed more important than hedging with derivatives—a finding that, although perhaps a surprise to financial professionals, underscores the authors’ finding that operational and derivative‐based hedges function as complements rather than substitutes. Indeed, the authors report that the most financially sophisticated companies tend to use all three of these common forms of risk management.     

Is Off–Board Trading Detrimental to Market Liquidity?

Dual trading can have opposite effects: although competition between markets should induce dealers to offer cheaper transactions, market fragmentation could reduce market activity, liquidity, and exchange efficiency. This paper shows that for French stocks traded on the London Stock Exchange's SEAQ International (SEAQ–I), market activity decreases significantly in the Paris Bourse during UK bank holidays. Thus, SEAQ–I market makers seem to divert a new clientele to the Paris Bourse, increasing both market activity and the breadth of the Bourse's order book. Also, contrary to the fragmentation hypothesis, dual trading does not seem to increase information asymmetry.     

A Fireside Chat with Raj Gupta: What It Takes to Create Long‐Term Value

The chairman of two public companies (and former chair and CEO of Rohm and Haas) draws on his experience as a director of five private and 15 public companies in discussing the challenges and opportunities facing today's corporate boards. Perhaps the most formidable challenge is the pace of technological change, which is making business models ‘in all industries and countries’ obsolete and forcing companies to adapt much more quickly than in the past. Along with the risk of obsolescence is the increase in ‘reputational risk’ associated with an ‘information age’ in which companies are forced to monitor the nearly continuous flow of fact, hearsay, and outright fabrication. The author recommends that public company boards adopt a new ‘partnership’ model. Besides ensuring an ‘ethical tone at the top,’ corporate directors should aim to become partners with the senior management team by playing more active roles in strategic planning, risk management, and the design of performance evaluation and incentive pay systems. In the most striking departure from current practice, the author urges directors to seize the opportunity created by the ‘reconcentration’ of ownership of U.S. public companies by actively engaging large institutional investors in a strategic dialogue about the companies' strengths and vulnerabilities. In so doing, proactive directors can help their management teams preempt shareholder activists and create long‐run value by creating a more effective two‐way channel of communication, one with the potential to give management more confidence when undertaking large strategic investments with longer‐run payoffs.     

做大做强,事务所缺什么?

做大做强,参与国际竞争,是国内大型会计师事务所的共同愿望,我们已经为这一目标努力多年,但距离目标的实现仍很远。我们不禁自问:做大做强,我们到底最缺的是什么?笔者认为,最缺的不是人才,而是核心竞争力。一、人才会计师事务所是提供专业服务的中介机构,做大做强自然需要一大批高素质的人才。人才是事务所最大的资产,是事务所做大做强的直接基础,这一点已经成为人们的共识。会计师行业流行这样一种说法:招聘最优秀的人才,提供最优质的服务,就能够办成最优质的事务所,从而实现做大做强。那么,我国的会计师事务所真的缺少优秀人才吗?国际“四…     

The Impact of Quasi‐Regulatory Reforms on Boards and Their Committees During the Period 2001–2007

This study investigates the cumulative impact of quasi‐regulatory and regulatory reforms, and political pressure on board composition and sub‐committees of boards over the period 2001 to 2007. Based on a sample of 450 firms listed on the Australian Stock Exchange, we find that most firms complied with the Principles of Good Corporate Governance and Best Practice by 2007. In particular, 85% of firms had an independent board and there was a significant increase in majority independent committees (audit, remuneration and nomination). While there was an increase in majority board independence, the increase in the mean level of board independence to 71% was modest. The level of compliance was highest for large firms, but the impact was largest on small firms, which changed their board composition the most. The relation between firm characteristics and board composition declined between 2001 and 2007, and changes in board composition were not able to be explained by changes in firm characteristics. If it is assumed that firms on average select their board to reflect their economic needs, this suggests that the changes in board composition may have been costly for firms.     

Systemic Liquidation Risk and the Diversity–Diversification Trade‐Off

This paper proposes a portfolio choice model in which investors are subject to liquidation risk and (endogenously) face higher costs in the event of joint liquidation (as was observed during the crisis of 2008 to 2009). The risk of joint liquidation creates an incentive for investors to choose heterogeneous portfolios and to rationally forgo diversification benefits. Joint liquidation risk is also reflected in asset prices, resulting in (1) assets with high idiosyncratic risk having low expected returns, and (2) assets that display high correlation with the portfolios of (liquidation‐prone) investors having high expected returns.     

Flood 2013: When Leaders Emerged and Risk Management Evolved at the University of Calgary

This article, organized as a teaching case, relates a small portion of the story that emerged when 2013 brought Calgary the most severe floods in living memory. The article first provides the reader with a bit of background on the topography, hydrology, and general risk exposure of the Bow River Valley in general and Calgary in particular. The next section provides some detail about The University of Calgary and its risk management structure. The article then looks at the Flood of 2013, describing the extent and phases of the disaster and the biggest challenges faced at the University. The article illustrates how important risk management processes can be even when an organization does not experience a disaster. The article concludes with a set of questions and answers that can be used to structure either a written assignment or an in‐class discussion. The key lessons that emerged for risk managers are presented in the answers to those questions.     

上市银行应当重视并加强市值管理

随着股权分置改革的完成,我国资本市场发展步入了"股票全流通"阶段.市值作为一项重要的资本市场评价指标,对上市公司的股东价值实现、资本经营、品牌和社会形象等方面的影响作用越发突出.本文从资本市场、股东利益、管理层激励和考核、价值创造和综合竞争力等角度阐述了上市公司,特别是上市银行应当加强市值管理的必要性.最后,围绕市值管理的"价值创造"、"价值实现"和"价值经营"这三方面,提出了上市公司加强市值管理的若干建议.     

适应金融市场环境 提升风险管理能力

进入新的五年计划时期，中国金融市场化环境已经并将继续发生新的深刻变化，包括利率和汇率市场化的进程不断加快，在此形势下，政府、银行和企业都面临一个更好地转变外部宏观金融市场环境，深入培育市场，更好地适应利率市场化和人民币汇率市场化的任务，只要积极主动应对，构建明晰的金融风险管理框架、提升风险计量与管理技术、方法、手段、工具，有效管理利率汇率风险，才能促进商业银行和全社会整体资金效益的提高和企业的可持续发展。     

银行风险控制应强化治理结构和信用制度建设

银行业作为负债经营的特殊行业具有较高的风险性,然而,中国银行业的风险有不同于国际一般银行业的特殊性。 首先,风险来自于治理结构的缺失。中国银行业风险表面上表现为不良贷款和财务困难,但实际根源在其治理结构缺陷,使得国有银行不良资产堆积起来。成为威胁银行业乃至经济的巨大潜在风险。国家     

Why EVA Bonus Plans Failed—and How to Revive Them

Most companies rely heavily on earnings to measure their financial performance, but earnings growth has at least two important weaknesses as a proxy for investor wealth. Current earnings growth may come at the expense of future earnings through, say, shortsighted cutbacks in corporate investment, including R&D or advertising. But growth in earnings per share can also be achieved by “overinvesting”—that is, committing ever more capital to projects with expected rates of return that, although well below the cost of capital, exceed the after‐tax cost of debt. Stock compensation has been the conventional solution to the first problem because it's a discounted cash flow value that is assumed to discourage actions that sacrifice future earnings. Economic profit—in its most popular manifestation, EVA—has been the conventional solution to the second problem because it includes a capital charge that penalizes low‐return investment. But neither of these conventional solutions appears to work very well in practice. Stock compensation isn't tied to business unit performance, and often fails to motivate corporate managers who believe that meeting consensus earnings is more important than investing to maintain future earnings. EVA often doesn't work well because increases in current EVA often come with reduced expectations of future EVA improvement—and reductions in current EVA are often accompanied by increases in future growth values. Since EVA bonus plans reward current EVA increases without taking account of changes in expected future growth values, they have the potential to encourage margin improvement that comes at the expense of business growth and discourage positive‐NPV investments that, because of longer‐run payoffs, reduce current EVA. In this article, the author demonstrates the possibility of overcoming such short‐termism by developing an operating model of changes in future growth value that can be used to calibrate “dynamic” EVA improvement targets that more closely align EVA bonus plan payouts with investors’ excess returns. With the use of “dynamic” targets, margin improvements that come at the expense of business growth can be discouraged by raising EVA performance targets, while growth investments can be encouraged by the use of lower EVA targets.     

从责任险赔案看保险人及时介入查勘、理赔程序的重要性

责任保险作为转嫁风险,寻求财务保障的重要手段,越来越为大众所接受,但是如果被保险人缺乏必要的保险、法律等专业知识,在不知情的情况下,其所付出的损害赔偿金可能会高于从责任保险中获得的赔偿,从而引起不必要的纠纷。笔认为要贯彻落实“客户至上,为保户服务”的思想,保险人要及时介入责任险的查勘、理赔程序,以充分维护被保险人的利益。