Financial Services

The exploitation of risk, and containing the impact of risk, are essential for financial services organisations to be profitable. Some activities must be inherently risky to provide for the possibility of gain. Traders operate under risk and uncertainty as to the direction in which prices will move, by how much, and over what timescale. Compliance and due diligence require processes and people to be assessed and audited to ensure that risks such as over-ambitious activity and fraud are minimised.

Advising the public on investments brings further regulatory demands. Oxford Risk can provide scientifically validated tools to assess the risk appetites of investors, to retain and document those assessments to prove due diligence, and to suggest appropriate product mixes for a suitable portfolio.

Oxford Risk can help the financial services sector by ensuring that the risk attitudes of employees in key roles fit with the needs of those roles. We can advise on whether the corporate culture, processes and remuneration schemes are aligned with the expected attitudes towards risk taking or risk aversion. We can provide tools to ensure that the most appropriate people are recruited or placed. In effect, the ‘riskiness’ of the organisation’s own decision-makers can be evaluated and corrected or compensated for.