Risk Taking: A Corporate Governance Perspective

1-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Classifications of Risks
Risk
Business Risks

Financial Risks

Market Risk
()

Absolute risk
Relative risk
Directional risks
Non-directional risks
Basis risk
Volatility risk

Measured by VAR
Credit Risk
()

Operational Risk
()

Probability of Default
Credit Exposure
Loss Given Default

Model risk
People risk
Legal risk

Liquidity Risk
()

Asset liquidity risk

Funding liquidity risk

Create Value with Risk Management

2-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Market Risk

Market risk is the risk that declining prices or volatility of prices in the
financial markets will result in a loss.
Types
Absolute Risk
Relative risk
Directional risks

Non-Directional
risks
Basis risk
Volatility risk

3-25

Definition
Measured in terms of shortfall relative to the initial value of the
investment and focuses on the volatility of total returns.
Measured in terms of shortfall relative to a benchmark (e.g.
market index).
Involve exposures to the direction of movements in major
financial Market variables. These directional exposures are
measured by first order or linear approximations.
Are risks that have non-linear exposures or neutral exposures to
changes in economic or financial variables
The risk that the price of a hedging instrument and the price of
the asset being hedged are nor perfectly correlated.
Risk of loss from changes in actual or implied volatility of
market prices.
FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Credit Risk
Credit risk is the risk of an economic loss from the failure of a counterparty to
fulfill its contractual obligations.

Expected credit loss PD CE LGD

Probability of Default

4-25

Credit Exposure

Loss Given Default

=1-Recovery Rate

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Operational Risk
Operational risk is the risk of loss due to inadequate monitoring systems,
management failure, defective controls, fraud, and /or human errors.
Types

Definition

Model Risk The risk of loss due to the use of misspecified or misapplied models. For
example, an institution buying or selling collateralized mortgage
obligations (CMOs) may be exposed to model risk if the model used to
price the CMOs does not adequately account for the probability of
default in the underlying mortgages.
People Risk The risk associated with fraud perpetrated by internal employees and / or
external individuals. An example of people risk is a rogue trader.
Legal Risk

5-25

The risk of a loss in value due to legal issues including lawsuits, fines,
penalties, and /or damages.

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Liquidity Risk

The term liquidity has been defined in myriad ways that ultimately boil
down to two properties, asset liquidity risk, a property of assets or
markets, and funding liquidity, which is more closely related to creditworthiness.

Asset liquidity risk (also called market liquidity risk) results from a
large position size forcing transactions to influence the price of
securities.

Funding liquidity risk (also called cash-flow risk) refers to the risk
that a financial institution will be unable to raise the cash necessary to
roll over its debt; to fulfill the cash, margin, or collateral requirements
of counterparties; or to meet capital withdrawals.

6-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Risk Profile and Risk Governance

Risk Profile

Risk profile: the list, with all of the risks that a firm is potentially
exposed to and categorizing these risks into groups, is called a risk
profile.

These risk can be divide into three groups:

Risks that are un-hedged.

Risks that are hedged.

Risks that exploited.

The risk profile should be created by company management and

reviewed by the Board of Directors.

A combination of brainstorming activities and the companys past

experiences is a starting point creating a companys risk profile.

7-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Risk Profile and Risk Governance

Risk Governance

Risk governance can be thought of as the methods in which risk-taking

is permitted, optimized, and monitored within an organization.

Good risk governance provides clearly defined accountability,

authority, and communication/reporting mechanisms.

Risk oversight is the responsibility of the entire board. However, some

boards use risk committees to help fulfill responsibilities.

The point of risk governance is to increase the value of the

organization from the perspective of shareholders and/or stakeholders.

8-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Example

Which of the following statements regarding corporate risk governance

is correct?
A.

Management of the organization is ultimately responsible for risk

oversight.

B.

A risk committee is useful for enforcing the firms risk governance

principles.

C.

Effective risk governance requires multiple levels of accountability

and authority.

D.

The point of risk governance is to minimize the amount of risk taken

by the organization.

9-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Answer D

10-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Valuation Using a Risk-Adjusted Discount Rate

NPV (Net Present Value)

N

CFt
NPV
t
(1

r)
t 0
where:
CFt: the expected net cash flow at time t
N: the estimated life of the investment
r: the discount rate (cost of capital)

11-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Valuation Using a Risk-Adjusted Discount Rate

The risk-adjusted discount rate is equal to the weighted average cost of

capital (WACC) based on a combination of the cost of equity and the cost
of debt.

WACC
cos t of capital = cost of equtiy

equity
debt
cos t of debt
debt equity
debt equity

Where:
cost of equity = risk-free rate + beta equity market premium
cost of debt = cost of borrowing(1- marginal tax rate)
cost of borrowing = risk-free rate + default spread

12-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Example
Use the following information to answer the following Questions:
Reid, Inc. is embarking on a new 4-year project in a foreign country with a
country risk premium of 4%. Expected incremental annual cash flows from this
project (assuming all cash flows occur at the end of the year) are as follows:
Year
Cash Flow
0
-$2.0 million
1
-$1.75 million
2
-$0.5 million
3
+$0.4 million
4
+$2.6 million
The terminal value of the project in year 4 is $2 million. Reids relevant risk-free
rate is 3%, and the beta of the new project is 1.1. The market risk premium is 5%.
Reids credit rating lends itself to a 3.5% default spread, and its marginal
corporate tax rate is 32%. The firms capital structure consists of a 45% debt and
55% equity funding mix.
13-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Example

1. Which of the following amounts is closest to Reids discount

rate (i.e., its cost of capital)?
A. 7.43%
B. 8.86%
C. 9.08%
D. 10.0%
Answer: C
The cost of equity is computed as: 0.03 + 1.1(0.05 + 0.04) = 12.99%
The cost of debt is computed as: (0.03 + 0.035)(1 0.32) = 4.42%
The cost of capital is computed as: (12.9%0.55) + (4.42%0.45) = 9.08%
14-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Example

2. Which of the following amounts is closest to the risk-adjusted

value of the new project (i.e., the net present value)?
A. -$561,700
B. -$467,100
C. +$120,200
D. +$177,300
Answer: B
The risk-adjusted value of the project using the 9.08% discount rate is:
1.75
0.5
0.4
2.6
2.0
NPV 2

2
3
4
1.0908 1.0908 1.0908 1.0908 1.09084
0.4671 million = - $467,100
15-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

E ( Ri ) R f i E ( RM ) R f =2.25%+1.67 4.70%=10.1%

V
16-25

1, 400, 000 1,800, 000

800, 000

3,355,889 3,356, 000

2
3
(1 10.1%) (1 10.1%) (1 10.1%)
FRMFinancial Risk Manager

About Beta

Financial leverage: as firms borrow money, they create fixed

costs (interest expenses) that make their equity earnings more
volatile and their equity betas higher. The beta for equity in a
firm can be written as a function of the beta of the business
that the firm operates in and the debt to equity ratio for the
firm:

Debt
Levered(Equity) Beta = Unlevered Beta 1 1 tax rate

Equity

17-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Unlevered Beta =1.75 / (1 + (1 25%)100million/100million)=1

Levered Beta = Unlevered Beta(1 + (1 15%)200million/100million)=2.7
2.50 3.25
18-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Enterprise Risk Management

Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) emphasizes a comprehensive,

holistic approach to managing risk, shifting away from an approach of

separately handling each organizational risk.

ERM also views risk management as a value-creating activity, and not

just a mitigation activity.

Regardless of the framework used, it is important that risk decisions

always tie in to the value of the enterprise to its stakeholders, particularly

to its shareholders.
19-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Four Steps in AIRMIC Risk Management Process

Step1: identification of risk management and enterprise objectives
risk
identification

risk
analysis
Step2: risk
assessment
AIRMIC
risk
manageme
nt process

risk estimation

purely
qualitative
semiquantitative
purely
quantitative

risk evaluation

scenario analysis
decision tree

simulation
Value at Risk (VaR)

risk avoidance
Step3: risk
treatment

risk transfer

risk reduction
risk retention

Step4: risk monitoring

20-25

sensitivity analysis

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Risk Estimation
1.

Purely Qualitative

21-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Risk Estimation
2.

22-25

Semi-Quantitative
The semi-quantitative estimate method
transforms a series of qualitative
judgments into quantitative variables,
using numerical scoring systems to arrive
at a risk score a numerical synthetic
risk judgment.
For example The risk severity is
determined by multiplying the probability
score by the impact score.
An event that is probable and would have
severe impact on the corporation will
score 50 x 200 = 1000; so this risk score
is high.

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

Example

Krista Skujins, FRM, is the CFO of a manufacturing firm. She is

currently in the process of diversifying the firms investment
portfolio by varying the correlations and asset classes among
securities. Diversification is best characterized as which of the
following risk treatments?
A.

Risk avoidance.

B.

Risk transfer.

C.

Risk retention.

D.

Risk reduction.

23-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

24-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager

FRM

25-25

FRMFinancial Risk Manager