Insights

Risk Culture: No Silver Bullet

More women on the trading floor is not the answer for improving risk culture

Many answers have been offered over the years to determine what caused the financial crisis. One that has proved popular with the media is that too many senior bankers and trading room staff are men. Lehman Brothers would have fared better if it has been Lehman Sisters.

And would more women mean less risk? Simply increasing the number of women in senior positions and dealing rooms is unlikely to create the desired risk culture. In this article, we highlight the five interconnected steps required to drive cultural change. True diversity is just part of a more comprehensive approach that banks should take to creating a responsible risk culture.
 

Interviewee quotes

Jenny Knott
Women are far more trusting of their own decisions and intuition, therefore are not afraid of calculated risk taking
Jenny Knott Strategic Advisor to Group CEOs, Standard Bank Plc
Jane Fraser
If you had more diversity then you might have taken control of some of the more extreme views in a better way. But it is the diversity which is key, not just adding women
Jane Fraser CEO of Citi’s U.S. Consumer and Commercial Banking and CitiMortgage
Anna Marrs
Post the financial crisis, shareholders are looking for a different culture in financial services. Part of that cultural transformation will require a different model of leadership
Anna Marrs Group Head of Commercial and Private Banking Clients Standard Chartered
Barbara Yastine
There is a lot of testosterone in Wall Street firms and this has had a spill over effect to other financial sector firms
Barbara Yastine CEO, Ally Bank

Risk Culture: No Silver Bullet


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