Posts by Tony Scianna

Financial regulation and risk were two of the biggest buzz words in the news over the past week. One blog post that I found particularly compelling came from the Waters Cooler Blog. Titled Making Risky Behavior Less Risky, it quotes comments that TowerGroup’s Stephen Bruel made on regulatory reform and managing risk. In case you haven’t seen it, I wanted to share a few excerpts that stood out:

“One of the problems that we saw [after the financial crisis] was that regulators weren’t talking to each other. One of my biggest surprises is that they haven’t created the Department of Homeland Security equivalent of regulation.”

“What this all means, essentially, is that data is king. Firms will have to develop processes to ensure that regulators have the necessary data to manage systemic risk. The ultimate goal is to present an aggregated risk profile using data that helps both the regulator and the institution.”

“Without that data, you can’t manage your risk. The goal [of the regulators] is to change behavior because if you don’t change behavior then the regulation is worthless.”

What’s your take on this article? With all the news and blog posts on these themes in the past week, what else has caught your attention? I’m interested in your thoughts.

Also, if you want some additional perspective from Stephen Bruel, please watch this brief video, where he speaks to SunGard about managing risk and increasing efficiency in the derivatives market.