Doha Bank CEO: Risk integration is key to strengthen governance

20/11/2014 12:19 AST

Dr. R. Seetharaman, CEO of Doha Bank gave his keynote speech on “Enterprise risk Integration” at the “Enterprise Risk Summit 2014” on 19th November 2014.

Dr. R. Seetharaman gave insight on global scenario and the developments in recent G20 meeting. He said, “The Global growth had not picked up and hence the G20 has committed to achieve 2.1 per cent increase in global growth in next five years. They’ve also agreed to a plan to reduce the gap between men and women in the workforce by 25 per cent over the next 10 years. This has the potential to bring 100 million women into the global workforce. G20 supported the initiatives to prevent, detect, report early and rapidly respond to infectious diseases like Ebola and make sure basic public health system prevails which allow for early warning when outbreaks of infectious disease occur. The G20 Food Security and Nutrition Framework will strengthen growth by lifting investment in food systems, raising productivity to expand food supply, and increasing incomes and quality jobs. To prevent cross-border tax evasion, G20 endorsed the global Common Reporting Standard for the automatic exchange of tax information (AEOI) on a reciprocal basis.”

Dr. R. Seetharaman highlighted on Global Governance. He said, “Ethical and moral governance has failed which contributed to the subprime crisis and global financial crisis. The Global Governance has got redefined after the crisis and has an impact on Corporate Governance. Gone are the days where financial institutions used to gamble. The public private partnership model prevailed in financial services industry after the crisis. Since April 2009 the global governance has brought measures to regulate the banking sector.

“Systematic risk is monitored closely by the regulators after the crisis and regulatory reforms have been pursued in relation to this. However the easing measurers by various Central Banks have lifted the stock markets. Currency volatility has also prevailed. The dollar index has strengthened and the oil prices have fallen recently. Japan has gone into recession despite the measures taken as part of Abenomics. The climate change challenge is prevalent and hence every organization whether it is Bank or an oil company should contribute to sustainable development as part of moral governance.”

Dr. R. Seetharaman gave insights on risk integration. He said “The Global financial crisis is an opportunity to strengthen enterprise risk management. Whether it is lending or investing or the overall balance sheet management risk management is critical as part of Governance. Enterprise risk management broadens the scope of risk management behaviors to include every significant business risk of the organization. It can be credit risk, market risk, operation risk, human resource risk or reputation risks. There should be an objective assessment of every transaction and we should manage the risks and contribute to the value system. We can’t see risks in isolation and an integrated approach towards risk is required. Recently Global Banks were subject to fines and litigation on account of LIBOR rigging, forex rigging and AML issues. Going forward Banks and financial institutions need to integrate their risk and compliance efforts to prevent recurrence of such events. Their is also a need to protect the brand of the organization as part of reputation risks. We live in a digital world and banks have embraced technology to provide better offerings to its customers. At the same banks should respond to challenges arising from digital security. Human resource is critical for every organization and back up plans are necessary for key staff in the organization as part of Business continuity plans. Key management staff should contribute to the shared vision of the organization and towards the strategy.

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