Description: Modern economies are based on the premise that all the main players look after themselves. The bankruptcy and limited liability laws gave property speculators and banks a put option on society so they could walk away from losses above their capital base, yet enjoy all the gains of such speculation. They acted in what they believed were their own interests. It seems that society – well aware of what was happening – did not effectively look after its own interest and now must pay the price.

Description: This article addresses the difficulties of risk modeling in a poor economic environment. The problems include imperfect vendors of data, facing events that have never occurred before, unpredictable consumer behavior, conflicting data sources, and AAA credit doesn't always mean AAA.

Description: This article demonstrates and explains the differences between the current Canadian and U.S. capital regimes on life insurance companies. The concept and framework of regulatory capital is first introduced and Canadian regulation capital requirements—minimum continuing capital and surplus requirements (MCCSR) and U.S. regulation capital-risk based capital (RBC)—is explained and compared.

Description: Models are imperfect approximations of reality. Once a bubble has been recognized, that’s the time for mechanisms of caution and prudence to kick in, even in the face of exuberance – especially in the face of exuberance. Liquidity and trust is plentiful until it’s not – it can evaporate with blazing speed and only returns slowly. Risk is contagious, which means every single employee and citizen has a vested interest in taking on the role of chief risk officer.

Description: The United States Geological Surv ey USGS released the latest version of its National Seismic Hazard Maps NSHM in April 2008. The maps, which were last updated in 2002, define the latest scientific view of earthquake hazard at varying probability levels across the United States.

Description: Our current financial crisis has wreaked havoc on the credit markets, the stock market and the entire economy. We must remember that the root cause of this crisis is the collapse of the residential housing market, which has been further exacerbated by the continuing downward housing spiral.

Description: The CRO Forum addresses this topic from an insurance industry perspective and will focus on the implications of the crisis on Enterprise Risk Management and regulation in the industry as a whole.

Description: This article recommends actions to key stakeholders to address the systemic risk in the retirement systems as employer and government based pensions reduce, and more emphasis is placed on personal savings.

Description: In this article, the author discusses earthquake modeling.

Description: This article discusses the details of what happened in equity repo in 2013.