This is advanced notice of a planned system outage to the RiskBusiness subscription services that will occur from 9am GMT on Saturday the 4th of February 2012 until approx. 6pm GMT.

Please contact your subscriber administrator for more information.

It is looking increasingly likely to many firms and governments that one or more countries could leave the Eurozone in the near future. This could happen with very short notice and firms need to be preparing now to cope with such a scenario.

RiskBusiness has prepared a list of potential issues firms may face to consider and, if appropriate, to take action on. This is neither a comprehensive nor a complete list, but it is a good starting point for firms to undertake a detailed scenario assessment.

The list, set out in the attached document, covers issues including: adapting systems to cope with new currencies and multiple base interest-rate structures; establishing extensive legal agreement with client and counterparties detailing how exposures and commitments will be dealt with under a new currency regime; measures to alter real-time settlement and netting systems; adapting to hastily-introduced currency control regulations; machines adapted to recognize news notes and coins coupled with staff training in handling of the new currencies; and many more.

For more information click here.

In its 10th year of publication, the financial services industry’s leading governance, operational risk and compliance publication, Incisive Media’s OpRisk & Compliance has issued 10 awards for initiatives and organizations for their significant contributions over the past decade to the discipline of operational risk management.

RiskBusiness received the award as one of two outstanding solution providers. In the March issue (Volume 10, number 3), editor Ellen Davis explained the rationale for the awards:
"We wanted to mark our 10th anniversary by celebrating the achievements of the operational risk industry. Amid the current financial and economic turmoil, it now seems more appropriate than ever to look back over how this discipline has evolved and changed over the past decade.The 10 awards … were given to organizations and initiatives that have consistently contributed to the development of the discipline over this period. It was rather difficult to work this down to just 10 - so many people, firms and vendors have contributed to the evolution of operational risk. The editorial staff had several meetings, and consulted industry experts to try to ensure those who were recognized were the crème de la crème.What is striking about all the winners of these special '10 years of excellence' awards, is just how unusual each of their achievements is. All the winners had considerable vision to embark on the courses of action they undertook, and were often far ahead of their peer group".