The Road to Improving Risk Culture

There is much hand-wringing on the question of risk culture. The failures of the recent past associated with bid-rigging, product mis-selling, rogue trading and the like are viewed by governments, regulators and the media as evidence of an increasing prevalence of unprincipled banking practices and poorly educated and managed bank employees. This negative perception of the culture within banks and declining standards of conduct is of great concern to regulators, senior bankers and their stakeholders. Perhaps, however, the current state of accounting and control systems should be of parallel concern, as it could provide the controls and metrics to govern and oversee the frameworks of improved risk culture demanded by all.