Global Risk Institute is a preeminent source of ideas on the management of emerging risks and trends for financial services organizations
5 June 2019 | Climate Change and Environmental Risks
The Society of Actuaries (SOA) Climate and Environmental Sustainability Research Committee awarded Sally Shen, Research Associate, Global Risk Institute, first prize for her three page essay "What Makes Green Investment a Puzzle" in May 2019. This essay argues that the myth behind the motivation of green investment is driven by both unknown knowns and unknown unknowns.
15 May 2019 | Climate Change and Environmental Risks
Nearly a third of the dams fail due to overtopping, an event whose likelihood increases as the potential for severe storms increases. Aging dams and levees, in combination with an increasing frequency of climate extremes pose an unprecedented risk to communities around the world. The financial risk associated with the failure of such assets is unmapped.
15 May 2019 | Discount Rate
This paper for the National Pension Hub develops a robust self-financing hedging portfolio to replicate the ultra-long dated (more than 30 years) liability in incomplete bond markets.
15 May 2019 | Geopolitical
In the race to innovate, the geopolitical determinants of big data, AI and 5G are critical to the financial services industry. A financial services provider must first understand the political dimensions of emerging technologies before it can assess the associated enterprise risks, test its resiliency and design appropriate governance strategies.
1 May 2019 | Risk Management Practices
The Global Risk Institute, in partnership with the Conference Board of Canada and the Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada, has conducted a benchmarking survey of enterprise risk management (ERM) practices across different industries. In the foreword, we highlight ERM practices in the financial services industry and discuss how they compare to other industries’ practices.
15 April 2019 | Climate Change and Environmental Risks
The climate is changing, but there is substantial uncertainty around the exact climate trajectory and as well as the economic consequences of climate change. As a result, investors around the world have a huge demand for hedging themselves against the realizations of climate risk.
1 April 2019 | Technology Innovations
From a financial institution’s perspective, AI offers a wide range of potential benefits, but one must ensure that the implementation of this technology is both prudent and ethical. To aid in the understanding of how this can be achieved, this report will introduce AI and detail issues of bias, interpretability, and data security and privacy as they relate to the ethical use of AI algorithms by financial institutions.
1 April 2019 | Geopolitical
For the Canadian financial services industry, the trade war presents complex and ambiguous risks. Punitive tariffs and general market uncertainty induce volatility, disrupt supply chains, and disincentivize new investment in the short-term. The dispute also creates a more protracted challenge in that it holds the potential to shape the future political relationship between the U.S. and China and thus the global economic system over the long-term
21 March 2019 | Technology Innovations
In this paper, we discuss Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs), one of the most common and complex Machine Learning tools. After a non-technical introduction to ANNs, we examine the risks associated with the application of this algorithm to financial data.
14 March 2019 | Geopolitical
In 2019, some of the largest emerging economies in Asia, Africa and Latin America could undergo disruptive political changes, while populist and anti-establishment parties are set to expand their reach in the European Union. This article provides a preliminary assessment of the policy implications of these elections and the risks for global financial institutions.
