This thesis investigates the evolutionary process of risk management practices associated with the implementation of enterprise risk management (ERM) across the finance sector. Despite the increasing number of ERM adoptions in the finance industry in recent years, ERM was still at an early stage of development and further research is recommended. The literature review identifies a gap in the ERM literature, prompting the development of a theoretical framework to investigate key organisational factors critical to effective implementation of the strategic framework. A strategic ERM Alignment Framework was developed to address key shortcomings of existing ERM practices in the industry and to provide practical guidance to academics and practitioners. The research was conducted as a two-stage empirical study in the finance sector, employing sequential mixed methods of data collection and analysis: a series of 35 semi-structured qualitative interviews with senior enterprise risk managers representing a variety of financial organisations, followed by a quantitative questionnaire survey of 115 finance industry professionals. The literature supports the industry view of continuous internal and external pressures towards ERM implementation across financial organisations. The research findings confirm that ERM is perceived to have slowly transformed from a process of compliance to a strategic tool and become a source of value creation and competitive advantage. The study also shows that aligning ERM with core organisational strategies and enterprise risk culture have been the underlying factors driving a strategic ERM framework sustainable over time. Inadequate senior management support for ERM and an insufficiently dynamic enterprise risk culture are identified as the greatest challenges to ERM sustainability. Major benefits of ERM are revealed as well informed risk-adjusted decision making and a strategic enterprise-wide view of key risks. The main contribution to knowledge of this research is the development of a strategic ERM Alignment Framework for the finance sector and practical guidelines for its effective implementation. Specifically, this research offers academics and finance industry practitioners a better understanding of organisational factors critical to the implementation of a strategic ERM Alignment Framework, supported by empirical evidence. Key limitation of the research was identified as the complexity of the ERM Alignment Framework that can be mitigated by undertaking future research to simplify the framework following its practical application. The researcher recommends that future research should focus on intangible elements and qualities of ERM that are important to the Alignment Framework, such as developing a strong and consistent enterprise risk culture, or investigating how the framework can add value to the organisation.

Thesis (M.Com. (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

In the last decade, the financial service industry has become increasingly aware of the dangers posed by operational risk. Profound changes in the economic and financial environment have made it necessary for banks in general to adapt their long term strategies as well as their approaches to the management of their assets and liabilities. Regardless of this heightened awareness, banks continue to fail at effective management of these risks. The Asset and Liability Management Committee (ALCO) is responsible for managing a bank's assets and liabilities to balance its many risk exposures and thereby help it achieve its operating objectives e.g. maximising Net Interest Income (Nil). Thus the ALCO process is the crux of the strategic management process performed within a bank. The ALCO process is driven by people, processes and technology which, in essence, is a broad definition of operational risk. Failure in any one of these areas will lead to failure of the ALCO, ALCO processes and, therefore, the strategic Asset and Liability Management (ALM). The focus of this study is, therefore, how to measure and manage operational risk in a bank's ALCO process. A case study was conducted, with the aid of ALCO experts in a specialised niche bank in South Africa, to identify operational risks within this bank's ALCO process. The various risk indicators of operational risk were classified into 5 broad categories. Each category was weighted according to its representative risk indicator and converted into percentages for the interpretation of the overall results. Category 2 (authority levels) has the highest negative impact, while the remaining 4 categories (employee, model, system and other indicators) have a medium negative impact, on the efficiency of the ALCO process. / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

In the last decade, the financial service industry has become increasingly aware of the dangers posed by operational risk. Profound changes in the economic and financial environment have made it necessary for banks in general to adapt their long term strategies as well as their approaches to the management of their assets and liabilities. Regardless of this heightened awareness, banks continue to fail at effective management of these risks. The Asset and Liability Management Committee (ALCO) is responsible for managing a bank's assets and liabilities to balance its many risk exposures and thereby help it achieve its operating objectives e.g. maximising Net Interest Income (Nil). Thus the ALCO process is the crux of the strategic management process performed within a bank. The ALCO process is driven by people, processes and technology which, in essence, is a broad definition of operational risk. Failure in any one of these areas will lead to failure of the ALCO, ALCO processes and, therefore, the strategic Asset and Liability Management (ALM). The focus of this study is, therefore, how to measure and manage operational risk in a bank's ALCO process. A case study was conducted, with the aid of ALCO experts in a specialised niche bank in South Africa, to identify operational risks within this bank's ALCO process. The various risk indicators of operational risk were classified into 5 broad categories. Each category was weighted according to its representative risk indicator and converted into percentages for the interpretation of the overall results. Category 2 (authority levels) has the highest negative impact, while the remaining 4 categories (employee, model, system and other indicators) have a medium negative impact, on the efficiency of the ALCO process. / Thesis (M.Com. (Risk Management))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

The main objective of this thesis is not only to describe and categorize risk but also to look at Porsche AG and determine how they deal with strategic risks. Primary focus is on the description and categorization of risks, strategic risks, importance of Risk Management and strategic risks faced by Porsche AG and their mitigation.

Risk management plays a key role in water utilities. Although tools are well established at operational and tactical levels of management, existing methods at strategic level lack a holistic treatment and a long-term perspective. In fact, risks are analysed per se, despite being interconnected; and long-term scenarios are commonly used for strategic planning, rather than for risk management, most of the time being related to one single issue (for example: climate change). In order to overcome the limitations identified in the existing methodologies, a novel approach for water utilities to manage risk at strategic level was developed and tested in EPAL - the largest and oldest water utility in Portugal. It consists of (i) setting a baseline risks comparison founded on a systemic model developed ‗bottom-up‘ through the business; (ii) the construction of future scenarios and an observation of how baseline risks may change with time. Major contributions of this research are the linkage between operational and strategic risks, capturing the interdependencies between strategic risks; the ability to look at long term risk, allowing the visualizing of the way strategic risks may change under a possible future scenario; and the novel coupling of risks and futures research. For the water sector, this approach constitutes a useful tool for strategic planning, which may be presented to the Board of Directors in a simple and intuitive way, despite the solid foundations of the underlying analysis. It also builds on in-house expertise, promoting the dissemination and pervasiveness of risk management within the companies and, on the other hand, allowing unveiling of existing knowledge, making it explicit and more useful for the organization.

Corporate governance issues resulting from bad governance, fraudulent activities, insider abuse, and corruption have attracted the attention of shareholders and regulators in the banking industry. The financial crisis that erupted from the United States affected the financial institutions of both developed and developing countries, among which Nigerian banks belong. The Central Bank of Nigeria removed 8 managing directors and executive directors due to bad governance, nonperforming loans of 61%, and toxic assets of $13.3 billion; the Central Bank injected 620 billion naira into the banks. The purpose of this multiple case study was to develop an understanding of corporate governance strategies needed to ensure regulatory compliance and enhance financial performance from the perspective of senior management of the regulatory authority and corporate financial leaders. Agency theory served as the conceptual framework for the study. The population for this study was10 senior regulatory leaders and corporate financial leaders in Nigeria. The data sources were semistructured interviews, research notes, codes of corporate governance, and financial reports of banks. Member checking was used to improve the credibility and trustworthiness of the data. After compiling, disassembling, reassembling, and coding the data, 5 themes including the need for: improvement on compliance to corporate governance regulations; effective board governance; training education and awareness on best practices, strategic risk management and internal control; and strategic and effective leadership. Potential implications for social change may include knowledge for investors and the public, who have increasingly relied on financial services in Nigeria to support personal and business goals to identify banks with best practices.

Enterprise is often described as risk for reward, but it may be possible to reduce the risk while improving returns. According to SEDA, failure rates of SMMEs in South Africa range from 70 to 80 percent. The need for this study arose when it was found that most SMMEs did not have a formal system in place to mitigate their risks right from the outset in the feasibility study, the business plan design and the start–up of the business. This lack of mitigation controls could be a result of a lack of understanding of the enterprise risk management (ERM) methodology or an inappropriate ERM decision–making model to assist them in a way that would mitigate their risk and minimise financial losses. The ERM approach can anticipate unplanned occurrences and is a systematic way of foreseeing the future. Entrepreneurs and business owners take on risks to pursue new business objectives within their respective risk appetites. This study also evaluated several models of risk identification and the ERM methodology. In this study an ERM model, ISO 31000, was applied in a business case and a comparison was made between the risks identified in the business plan and the ERM approach. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Enterprise is often described as risk for reward, but it may be possible to reduce the risk while improving returns. According to SEDA, failure rates of SMMEs in South Africa range from 70 to 80 percent. The need for this study arose when it was found that most SMMEs did not have a formal system in place to mitigate their risks right from the outset in the feasibility study, the business plan design and the start–up of the business. This lack of mitigation controls could be a result of a lack of understanding of the enterprise risk management (ERM) methodology or an inappropriate ERM decision–making model to assist them in a way that would mitigate their risk and minimise financial losses. The ERM approach can anticipate unplanned occurrences and is a systematic way of foreseeing the future. Entrepreneurs and business owners take on risks to pursue new business objectives within their respective risk appetites. This study also evaluated several models of risk identification and the ERM methodology. In this study an ERM model, ISO 31000, was applied in a business case and a comparison was made between the risks identified in the business plan and the ERM approach. / Thesis (M.B.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-71). / Surveys of firms outside the property sector indicate the growth in the use of DCF methods such as the NPV and IRR methods to evaluate projects as compared to the use of such naïve methods as Payback and the Accounting rate of return. The growing convergence of theory and practice is indicated by the growing use of the NPV method. The objective of this study is to determine the capital budgeting methods used to evaluate real estate development projects and to compare the results of a survey with the results of other studies. Further, recent developments in capital budgeting theory, indicate that the investment valuation tools such as the Net Present Value (NPV), Internal Rate of Return (lRR), Payback Period (PP), and theAccounting Rate of Return (ARR) may fail to recognize flexibilities in real estate development projects. As a consequence, the discounted cash flow methods (DCF) may systematically undervalue strategic or large-scale real estate development projects. Two methods are introduced as an alternative to address the weaknesses of the DCF methods. Decision Tree Analysis (DTA) employs an approach to analyse flexibilities by creating a chain of possible options and allows alternative courses of action for management to adapt their initial strategies in order to capitalise on new opportunities or to minimise losses. Real Option Analysis (ROA) introduces the theory of valuing financial derivates, in particular call options, and allows the staging of the development. These instruments further introduce a risk management aspect, as call options have a limited down side and an unlimited upside. Each approach has advantages and shortcomings and should only be used in appropriate circumstances. DTA is suited for the analysis of the project specific risks. ROA on the other hand, is a superior tool when dealing with uncertainty. The thesis finds that that over 90% of all respondents are using a combination of NPV and IRR methods most often to evaluate development opportunities. Interestingly, 85% of all respondents are also using the payback period. Other methods used are the profitability index, residual value, free cash flow, economic value, and return on equity. Developers have adopted DCF methods such as NPV and IRR as the primary methods to evaluate projects rather than naïve methods such as Payback and ARR, although these latter methods remain in use. The use of decision tree analysis and real option analysis is very limited.