This research study had two distinct objectives. The first objective was to determine in which areas in South African banks the most severe operational risk losses are likely to occur (based on the Basel II seven loss event types and eight business lines). Severity was assessed based on single operational risk events that might have significant monetary values attached to them. The likely frequency of single operational risk events was also assessed. The investigation of the aforementioned research problem was explorative and quantitative of nature, as the researcher made extensive use of survey research in the form of a questionnaire to all registered banks. The second part of the research study’s objective was to assess the range of practices in collecting internal loss data for operational risk purposes as required by Basel II. This part was approached from a qualitative perspective, by benchmarking the research findings against the Basel II text, the researcher’s experience in risk management in banks, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Sound Practices for the Management and Supervision of Operational Risk, and related literature. The literature review, including reference to certain surveys and studies, focuses on the main concepts of operational risk within banks that are pertinent to the research problem. The literature review also includes several references to the Basel II text and other relevant publications and papers issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The research results revealed that respondents in South African banks believed that ‘business disruption and system failures’ is the loss event type that is likely to result in the most severe single operational risk loss. ‘Trading and sales’ scored the same high average rating as ‘business disruption and system failures’ as the business line where the most severe single operational risk loss is likely to occur in South African banks. ‘External fraud’ and ‘execution, delivery and process management’ scored the highest average ratings as the loss event types where the most frequent operational risk losses are likely to occur. Respondents indicated that ‘retail banking’ is the business line where the most frequent single operational risk losses are likely to occur in South African banks. Based on the above-mentioned findings the researcher recommends that these high-risk areas be highlighted to the Bank Supervision Department of the South African Reserve Bank, the boards of directors and senior management of banks in order for them to strengthen banks’ internal controls. The researcher recommends the inclusion of near misses and opportunity cost in operational risk loss databases. Banks should at least capture the date of the discovery of an operational risk event as this represents acceptable practice among the majority of banks. Operational risk losses should be assigned to the multiple business activities in which it occurred on a pro-rata basis. All recoveries of operational risk losses should be processed separately, but associated with the original loss event. Replacement cost is seen as the most appropriate way to capture gross loss amounts for the damage to fixed assets. The researcher encourages the recording of overtime cost for fixing systems failures. Market risk losses due to operational risk events should be treated as market risk losses, while loan-related losses due to operational risk failures should be treated as credit risk losses by banks. The researcher’s view is that banks should set different thresholds for the collection of operational risk losses for its various business units based on each business unit’s operations and nature of business. Banks should, as a starting point, map operational risk events to the Basel II 8x7 matrix. Operational risk losses should be assessed by both legal entity and on a consolidated basis.

This research study had two distinct objectives. The first objective was to determine in which areas in South African banks the most severe operational risk losses are likely to occur (based on the Basel II seven loss event types and eight business lines). Severity was assessed based on single operational risk events that might have significant monetary values attached to them. The likely frequency of single operational risk events was also assessed. The investigation of the aforementioned research problem was explorative and quantitative of nature, as the researcher made extensive use of survey research in the form of a questionnaire to all registered banks. The second part of the research study’s objective was to assess the range of practices in collecting internal loss data for operational risk purposes as required by Basel II. This part was approached from a qualitative perspective, by benchmarking the research findings against the Basel II text, the researcher’s experience in risk management in banks, the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision’s Sound Practices for the Management and Supervision of Operational Risk, and related literature. The literature review, including reference to certain surveys and studies, focuses on the main concepts of operational risk within banks that are pertinent to the research problem. The literature review also includes several references to the Basel II text and other relevant publications and papers issued by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. The research results revealed that respondents in South African banks believed that ‘business disruption and system failures’ is the loss event type that is likely to result in the most severe single operational risk loss. ‘Trading and sales’ scored the same high average rating as ‘business disruption and system failures’ as the business line where the most severe single operational risk loss is likely to occur in South African banks. ‘External fraud’ and ‘execution, delivery and process management’ scored the highest average ratings as the loss event types where the most frequent operational risk losses are likely to occur. Respondents indicated that ‘retail banking’ is the business line where the most frequent single operational risk losses are likely to occur in South African banks. Based on the above-mentioned findings the researcher recommends that these high-risk areas be highlighted to the Bank Supervision Department of the South African Reserve Bank, the boards of directors and senior management of banks in order for them to strengthen banks’ internal controls. The researcher recommends the inclusion of near misses and opportunity cost in operational risk loss databases. Banks should at least capture the date of the discovery of an operational risk event as this represents acceptable practice among the majority of banks. Operational risk losses should be assigned to the multiple business activities in which it occurred on a pro-rata basis. All recoveries of operational risk losses should be processed separately, but associated with the original loss event. Replacement cost is seen as the most appropriate way to capture gross loss amounts for the damage to fixed assets. The researcher encourages the recording of overtime cost for fixing systems failures. Market risk losses due to operational risk events should be treated as market risk losses, while loan-related losses due to operational risk failures should be treated as credit risk losses by banks. The researcher’s view is that banks should set different thresholds for the collection of operational risk losses for its various business units based on each business unit’s operations and nature of business. Banks should, as a starting point, map operational risk events to the Basel II 8x7 matrix. Operational risk losses should be assessed by both legal entity and on a consolidated basis.

This thesis addresses the problem of cell loss when transmitting video data over an ATM network. Cell loss causes sections of an image to be lost or discarded in the interconnecting nodes between the transmitting and receiving locations. The method used to combat this problem is to use a technique called Error Concealment, where the lost sections of an image are replaced with approximations derived from the information in the surrounding areas to the error. This technique does not require any additional encoding, as used by Error Correction. Conventional techniques conceal from within the pixel domain, but require a large amount of processing (2N2 up to 20N2) where N is the dimension of an N×N square block. Also, previous work at Loughborough used Linear Interpolation in the transform domain, which required much less processing, to conceal the error.

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 26-29, 1998 / Town & Country Resort Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / As renewal interest in building vehicles based on hypersonic technologies begin to emerge again, test ranges anticipating in supporting flight research of these vehicles will face a set of engineering problems. Most fundamentals of these will be to track and gather error free telemetry from the vehicles in flight. The first series of vehicles will likely be reduced-scale models that restrict the locations and geometric shapes of the telemetry antennas. High kinetic heating will further limit antenna design and construction. Consequently, antennas radiation patterns will be sub-optimal, showing lower gains and detrimental nulls. A mobile system designed to address the technical issues above will be described. The use of antenna arrays, spatial diversity and a hybrid tracking system using optical and electronic techniques to obtain error free telemetry in the present of multipath will be presented. System tests results will also be presented.

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Bank failures during recent years continue to cause stakeholders to question how board and senior management are overseeing and managing Operational Risk. This research evaluated the use of Operational Risk tools by South African banks who have adopted Advanced Measurement Approach (AMA) for management and calculation of Operational Risk capital, based on the Basel II requirements (Bank for International Settlements, 2006). The research was conducted under the assumption that when Operational Risk tools are adopted and used as prescribed by the Basel II Framework, it will lead to enhanced risk management practices and allow banks to identify emerging risks where controls can be designed to mitigate risks from materialising. This study was conducted using a quantitative method – the survey was sent to Operational Risk managers in the main segments of 3 South African AMA banks (ABSA, FIRSTRAND and NEDBANK), and senior managers in the group Operational Risk departments. The study found that Operational Risk tools are used and have been implemented as per Basel II requirements even though there are minor gaps. These tools have also been integrated in day-to-day processes; however there are some improvements required when it comes to a full integration and the use of the tools in the decision making processes. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted