6. Conclusion
Risk management behaviour is now considered a core banking skill yet little is established in the academic literature either about the behaviour itself or the people most likely to display it. Based on review of the regulatory and practitioner literature, we find that desirable risk management behaviour by staff, as opposed to senior leaders, can be defined as “compliance plus”. That is, staff are expected to act consistently with risk policy/appetite but also to thoughtfully engage with the risk management process. This includes contributing to improvements to the risk framework by raising issues, reporting risk events, identifying new and emerging risks and even acting with accountability.
We find a significant negative association between individual risk tolerance and desirable risk management behaviour. This is likely to be caused by anxiety by more risk averse employees about the likely consequences of non-compliance with policy if discovered. Those who are more risk averse are also more likely to see value in the risk management framework and, thus, work to improve it.