2016FRM_Stulz_Risk_Failures.pdf

Fisher College of Business Working Paper Series Charles A. Dice Center for Research in Financial Economics Risk Management Failures: What Are They and When Do They Happen? René M. Stulz, Department of Finance, The Ohio State University, NBER, and ECGI Dice Center WP 2008-18 Fisher College of Business WP 2008-03-017 October 2008 This paper can be downloaded without charge from: /abstract=1278073 An index to the working paper in the Fisher College of Business Working Paper Series is located at: /link/Fisher-College-of-Business.html Electronic copy available at: /abstract=1278073 Risk management failures: What are they and when do they happen? René Stulz* October 2008 Abstract A large loss is not evidence of a risk management failure because a large loss can happen even if risk management is flawless. I provide a typology of risk management failures and show how various types of risk management failures occur. Because of the limitations of past data in assessing the probability and the implications of a financial crisis, I conclude that financial institutions should use scenarios for credible financial crisis threats even if they perceive the probability of such events to be extremely small.