A difference in kind

Tracking key risk indicators is emerging as a central aspect of best practice for operational risk management. Defining these indicators and establishing benchmarks for them, however, is a complex task. David Rowe discusses an industry initiative that can help

Last month’s column discussed the continuing need for eclectic risk indicators that cannot easily be aggregated into a single total risk figure. This is especially true in the area of operational risk management. Recent discussions of op risk tend to emphasise its differences from market and credit risk. In particular, the heterogeneous nature of op risk is forcing a qualitatively different approach to its measurement and control than is typical for the two more familiar categories of risk. At