Here's how you can effectively manage and mitigate risks as a banking executive.

Strategies for managing and mitigating risks: 1. Maintain a Strong Risk Culture encompassing everyone. 2. Implement Robust Risk Governance with clear roles, responsibilities, and reporting lines. 3. Invest in advanced technologies and data analytics. 4. Diversify Risk Exposure: Avoid concentration of the bank's portfolio across asset classes, geographies, etc. 5. Strengthen Regulatory Change Management for solid compliance with laws. 6. Conduct Regular Stress Testing and Scenario Analysis. 7. Enhance Cybersecurity Measures! 8. Foster Transparent Communication with all stakeholders, including regulators. 9. Build a Resilient Operation that can withstand disruptions. 10. Review and upgrade risk management practices continuously.

Proactive risk assessment through multiple process like self assessment, Tech assessment and more . Proactive risk assessment will give an opportunity to identify the gaps and further we can assess the risk to understand its impact and manage through standard process and timeline. Assessing risk is very important and have to be considered as priority task if any thing identified , else to manage the risk effectively.

The biggest challenge for large organizations in conducting risk assessments is managing complexity. With diverse operations, extensive assets, and numerous potential threats, it’s difficult to identify and evaluate all risks comprehensively. Integrating risk data from various departments and ensuring consistent assessment standards is also challenging. Moreover, staying current with evolving threats, such as cyber attacks and regulatory changes, requires continuous updates and adaptability. Effective communication and collaboration across the organization are essential to address these challenges, making the process resource-intensive and demanding skilled personnel and robust systems.

Having in place proper policies that assist achieve clear intentions of the organization is important. For me, policy have a higher impact in ensuring that processes in place and procedures established talk to each other and enhance clear acceptable direction for the organization. Risks identified also help build and strengthen on policy directions for the institution with the continuous changes in relation to business environment.

Policies must be comprehensive yet flexible to address a wide range of risks, from cyber threats to regulatory changes. Balancing detail with clarity is tough, as overly complex policies can hinder understanding and compliance. Keeping policies up-to-date amid evolving risks and business environments demands continuous review and adjustment. Also, achieving buy-in from all stakeholders and ensuring consistent implementation across diverse departments and locations further complicates policy creation and enforcement.

Policy creation in organizational governance establishes guidelines reflecting core values. Policies maintain consistency and compliance with global standards. Annual reviews ensure policy relevance and compliance. Approval and integration with automated controls are key steps. Policies can be documentation-based or technical, requiring system integration. Regular reviews are crucial for accuracy and relevance, especially for documentation-based policies.

Essentially, without a control system everyone and everything in an organization remains disruptive and unclear. An organizational culture mainly adverse is developed and the term "we do and have been doing things this way" becomes a normal thing said and used by staff. Instituting and maintaining a strong internal control environment in which staff operate in plays an important role as functional roles observe a prescribed guided approach. Monitoring and evaluating outputs will inform the need for any change in the event the controls fail to work

Balancing security and operational efficiency requires controls that fit seamlessly into existing workflows without causing disruptions. Ensuring compatibility across diverse IT environments and legacy systems can be complex. Furthermore, organizations must continuously adapt controls to evolving threats and regulatory requirements, which demands ongoing investment and skilled personnel. Achieving consistent enforcement and compliance across all departments and locations further complicates implementation, making it a resource-intensive and dynamic process.

Control systems must be more proactive rather than reactive, proactive control detection will always give an early alert which can further be treated based on priority. For every risk there must have at least one bare minimum control should be in place as mitigation standpoint or can be more as well . All control system which are inbuilt should be verified frequently in some defined duration to ensure all are then adequately place and working as per the requirements. Additional control can be invoked at any point of time depending upon the issue how frequently occurring and original control unable to prevent at its best .

Of the many assignments and institutions I have worked in, the frequency to report on evaluated risk factors and undertaking reviews and analysis on data and trends picks unique trends that will enhance decision making process. The leadership should communicate and report clearly on established risk factors where relevant, specific and measurable aspects of the risks have been listed. this sets a paced approach to escalate expected mitigations through a clear established monitoring tool. Use of management systems, software's and thought through reports will enhance monitoring at all functional levels.

Continuous monitoring requires integrating real-time data from diverse sources. Ensuring that monitoring tools and processes remain current and effective against new threats is also demanding. Balancing thoroughness with efficiency is crucial to avoid information overload and ensure actionable insights.

Throughout the risk assessment process, the identification and management of strengths are fundamental, particularly in the project's early stages. Comprehensive comprehension of risk origins and characteristics is essential for effective mitigation. Monitoring stands as a critical element in ensuring the sustainability of risk management efforts. It facilitates the assessment of mitigation strategy efficacy and underscores the requirement for supplementary control measures when needed. Monitoring significantly contributes to fortifying risk management across the project's entire lifecycle.

We discovered that, in addition to having strong risk systems, rules, and solid governance, bank CEOs must actively encourage a risk-aware culture and invest in regular training. Leaders should prioritise integrating risk management into daily operations. Job-specific training ensures that employees understand their role in risk management and best practices. Promoting transparency and recognizing strong risk management activities enhances resilience and protects against threats.

Its critical that crisis management efforts ensure preparedness for diverse and unforeseen scenarios. Creating a flexible and comprehensive plan that addresses various types of crises, from natural disasters to cyber attacks, requires anticipating numerous potential threats and coordinating across departments. Balancing detailed procedures with the need for rapid decision-making can be hard. Furthermore, testing and updating the plan regularly to reflect new risks and lessons learned from past incidents are essential but resource-intensive. Achieving organization-wide awareness and buy-in further complicates effective crisis management development.

I am a believer that Crisis Management plans should be aligned via corporate functional areas needed during a crisis (executive coordinators, communications, HR, Finance, ect…) instead of a plan for a potential crisis. Many companies have a separate plan for natural disaster, pandemic, cyber, fire etc…. This creates multiple plans that have much overlap and additional maintenance to keep them ready. If your Crisis Management plan surrounds functional areas you will always be prepared no matter the crisis. Think the unthinkable, Delta Airlines, Microsoft & Crowd Strike are right now.

We’ve found that aside from having robust risk systems, policies and good governance, it’s imperative that bank executives actively promote a risk-aware culture and invest in ongoing training. Leaders should prioritise the embedding of risk management into daily operations. Job-specific training means that employees understand their role in managing risk and what constitutes best practice. Promoting transparency and recognising effective risk management efforts further strengthens resilience and protects against threats.