Risk management
Operational risk: a practitioner's view
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision ("the Committee") released aconsultative document that included a regulatory capital charge for operationalrisk. Since the release of the document, the complexity of the concept of "operationalrisk" has led to…
A fast-evolving world
Introduction
Buying your way out of trouble
UK high-street retailer Littlewoods has saved £1.5 million through an energy risk management and procurement programme. Utilyx’s Nigel Cornwall looks at how other companies can reduce energy costs through purchase programmes
Energy firms find succour
US energy company debt has reached critical levels, with nervous investors and banks working hard to keep these companies afloat. But Paul Lyon finds the secretive hedge fund industry could also lend a helping hand
Building a better benchmark
Hedge fund indexes
Diversity in adversity
Commodities indexes
Losing track?
Tracking error
Performance anxiety
CDO benchmarking
A cautious embrace
Credit indexes
How to spot a VaR cheat
Traders can use weaknesses in VaR measurement to make it appear that they are not taking any risks. Brett Humphreys exposes how easily this can be done
The case for financially settled contracts
Banks and hedge funds have shied away from trading electricity due to fear and ignorance of the physical nature of the market. But, as Todd Bessemer of Accenture points out, financially settled contracts can avoid the complexity of physical delivery and…
Greening the markets
Environmental risks are increasingly being recognised as important financial issues, but the markets are still some way from rewarding companies for good environmental performance, as Kevin Foster discovers
Models of good behaviour
The development of new models that describe the real dynamics of energy prices have to take into account the behavioural aspects of market players. The problem is how to quantify these aspects. Maria Kielmas reports
Optimise this
One of the reactions to recent energy trading difficulties has been a shift away from speculative activities towards portfolio optimisation, but what does the term really mean, ask Tim Essaye and Brett Humphreys
Trading with a small ‘t’
What made headlines before is now becoming everyday news: energy companies are scaling back or leaving energy trading. Some industry observers are emphasising the shift to ‘trading around assets’. Anne Ku investigates just what this means
Tailoring internal models
Swiss Re's Pablo Koch Medina, Frank Krieter and Stephan Schreckenberg highlight the key features and main limitations of internal risk models for insurers.
Serving the pension funds
Introduction
Assessing views
Portfolio management
A hedge fund by any other name?
Regulation
Quantifying the op risk in investment fund valuation
Operational risk
The fashionable link
Inflation
New models for ailing pensions
Pension funds
Investors get real
Commodities