Risk management ‘crucial in crisis’

June 23, 2009 12:12:35 PM

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Survival of a business in times of crisis depends on its understanding of associated risks, said Capital Markets Development Authority chief executive officer Mereia Volavola. 

Commenting ahead of a two-day workshop to be held in Suva on risk management, Volavola said the recent financial crisis has revealed some very important lessons for stakeholders in the financial markets.

“The failure by management and boards to identify and adequately mitigate the
commercial risks arising from their business activities exposed the vulnerability and the demise of many well established financial institutions,” Volavola said. 

“This begs the question though as to why or how did the banks and financial institutions get it so wrong? What lessons could be learnt from this? Understanding, implementing and monitoring risk management is essential for long-term business success and survival in a crisis,” she added.

The workshop, which begins in Suva tomorrow, will address key issues in risk management and will look at the principles of market, credit and operational risks as well as performance measurement and attribution. 

It will be facilitated by Andrew Butler from the Securities and Investment Institute Asia- Pacific (SiiA) and is expected to boost the participant’s understanding of various risk measures, sources and model risk factors in doing business and managing it.

Those on the attendance list include local Executive Officers, Chief Finance Officers, Finance Officers, Compliance Officers, Business and Financial Analysts. 

Volavola said that although our financial markets have not been directly involved or
exposed in the financial turmoil that affected the international markets, Fiji could still learn from their experiences and be prepared to weather any future crisis.

The workshop is a collaboration between the Capital Markets Development Authority and SiiA.