A Practical Guide to Risk Management Quotes

“Although a single source of risk may create large losses, it is not generally enough to result in an actual disaster. For such an event to occur, several types of risks usually need to interact. Most importantly, the lack of appropriate controls appears to be a determining contributor. Although inadequate controls do not trigger the actual financial loss, they allow the organization to take more risk than necessary and also provide enough time for extreme losses to accumulate.”
― Thomas S. Coleman, A Practical Guide to Risk Management

“Overconfidence in numbers and quantitative techniques and in our ability to represent extreme events should be subject to severe criticism because it lulls us into a false sense of security.”
― Thomas S. Coleman, A Practical Guide to Risk Management

“Models for Measuring Risk Will Not Include All Positions and All Risks. The models used to measure VaR, volatility, or whatever else will never include all positions and all risks. Positions may be missed for a variety of reasons. Perhaps some legacy computer system does not feed the main risk system, or some new system may not yet be integrated. A new product may not yet have been modeled, or someone may simply neglect to book a trade in a timely manner. A good and robust risk system will have processes and procedures for checking that all positions are captured and reporting those that are not. Nonetheless, there is always some possibility that positions are missed. Likewise, the risk of positions that are included may not be properly represented. A complex derivative security may not be modeled correctly. Some product may have an unexpected sensitivity that is not captured by the risk system. Missing positions and missing risks mean that the risk measures reported will not perfectly represent the actual risk. In reality, nobody should be surprised that a reported risk number is not absolutely perfect.”
― Thomas S. Coleman, A Practical Guide to Risk Management

“The real risk to an organization is in the unanticipated or unexpected—exactly what quantitative measures capture least well.”
― Thomas S. Coleman, A Practical Guide to Risk Management