Risk Management

The FSA rules, especially the Prudential Rules and the Capital Requirements Directive, require firms to have risk policies and systems and controls for identifying, assessing, monitoring and controlling risks. The strength and efficacy of these controls will determine the capital to be allocated to withstand those risks, either via the individual capital adequacy assessment process (ICAS & ICAAP) that the firm undertakes or via the individual capital guidance (ICG) that the regulator gives the firm.

Since the banking crisis of 2009, focus is firmly on capital and liquidity risk. The Turner Report and the FSA’s consultation papers on liquidity recently issued are amongst a raft of proposed legislation which companies will almost certainly have to put systems in place to ensure compliance.

The Spearhead risk team will assist with ARROW visit preparation, AML/ATF/AFC: manuals, policies, procedures and training, Solvency 2, TCF: Getting firms to compliance including MI and training, drafting and implementing policies and procedures, Assessing impact of proposed liquidity regime for banks, Banking Conduct Regime implementation, CRD & MiFID readiness/gap analysis; implementation, Drafting/Documenting Systems and Controls, Risk and Control Assessment, Advice on regulatory return completion, Stress Testing and Scenario Analysis.

Our strength at Spearhead, is that we are able to tailor systems, and provide training and controls for  individual companies. Risks covered are: credit, market, operational, liquidity, insurance, group and regulatory. Our approach, working ‘with the grain’, seeks to, document existing systems, modifying them where necessary to bring the firm to compliance.