Honesty and transparency 'are key'

LONDON – Carol Sergeant, chief risk director at Lloyds TSB, has urged risk managers to create a culture of honesty and transparency at firms to help prevent loss events that spring up unexpectedly as a result of fundamental flaws in business strategy or tactics.

A member of the audience at the OpRisk Europe conference, held in early April in London, asked Sergeant how a chief risk officer could 'know' all that goes on in an organisation. "This is, of course, the thing that keeps all chief risk directors awake at night – 'Do I know?'" said Sergeant. "I think the best way of being sure that 'I know' is being sure that the people who run the businesses know. You can have the best risk oversight functions and analytics in the world, but if the guy who runs