Feature
Feeling Secure? Energy Risk's Risk Management Survey 2009
Budget constraints have become the biggest hindrance to effective risk management, and credit is the biggest risk to energy trading, according to respondents of Energy Risk’s 2009 Risk Management Survey. Rachel Morison presents the results
UK set for clamp down on bribery and corruption
Long seen as lagging behind other countries in the fight against corruption, the UK is now set to clamp down on bribery with tough new legislation.
The weight of blame
The public's perception of banks has hit rock bottom, and politicians have pounced on the opportunity provided by the crisis to increase their own popularity. So banks face not only loss of business but also increased regulation.
Land of giants
Canada's banking community comprises a small group of very large banks. Working together, and with their sole, principles-focused regulators, this tightly-knit, risk averse group has avoided the worst of the financial crisis and taken internal op risk…
All in his stride
Hamish Lock had to hit the ground running when he became head of op risk at Bank of Montreal just over a year ago. But taking on a new risk role amid a global financial crisis hasn't fazed him, and he is already well on the way towards achieving his new…
Solvency II & risk management conference
Life & Pensions’ fourth annual Solvency II conference brought together a large number of leading industry figures at a critical point in the directive’s evolution
Future planning
Deloitte and Credit Suisse have made particularly strong showings in Life & Pensions’ third annual insurance rankings, after a long and difficult year in which insurers have been busily preparing for the implementation of Solvency II. Andrew Sheen reports
Open for hedges
India’s insurance sector has long been hamstrung by its inability to use equity derivatives. This is about to change with the country’s insurance regulator set to relax the rules on derivatives. But are India’s insurers ready for synthetic instruments?…
Health kicks
The US pension sector is having to cope not just with the increased cost of retirement provision but also the attendant healthcare obligations many schemes are under – liabilities that must now be accounted for upfront. Andrew Sheen reports
Institutional memory
Ninety-year-old TIAA-Cref is one of the US’s oldest providers of retirement services and came into the financial crisis with experience of past crises galore. But did history help it when the crunch bit, and how will its business model learn from this…
Turbulence in Taipei
Taiwan has a reputation as one of Asia’s more open financial markets. But a Supreme Court ruling last year that raised concerns about the enforceability of close-out netting and new regulatory changes that have impeded the ability of banks to offer…
Drastic action
Authorities at the centre of the financial crisis are prescribing more regulation and more capital as appropriate measures to prevent a similar calamity in the future. But a study released this month by Japanese think-tank, the National Institute for…