A little respect

EDITOR'S LETTER ELLEN DAVIS

I have also had several rather kind notes about last month’s editorial, on the relationship between Rousseau and Basel II. I must confess that it was the product of a debate I had with a colleague after drinking far too much red wine while at a conference in Madrid, so am glad that my ramblings made some sense.

This month’s thought? At the risk of sounding like I am shamelessly pandering to Operational Risk’s readership, I’d like to say I am surprised at just how under-appreciated op risk managers seem to be. Our third annual op risk survey, sponsored by consulting firm Protiviti, shows that although more and more responsibility is being placed on the shoulders of op risk managers, the funding that should be coming through to help them meet this increased burden doesn’t seem to be in place.

And in our monthly survey, we asked if operational risk managers’ "board of directors understand operational risk to the level of sophistication you consider appropriate?" The answer was a resounding ‘no’ – 78.6% answered that way.

Should we initiate an annual ‘Operational Risk Respect Day’? Thoughts welcome, as always…