About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Asset Owners Change Approach to Risk Management

Subscribe to our newsletter

MSCI, a leading provider of investment decision support tools worldwide, published today the results of its 2011 Global Asset Owners Survey: Back to the Future of Risk Management. With 85 participants from 26 countries, representing roughly USD 5.5 trillion in assets under management, this is one of the most in-depth surveys to look at risk management trends, as well as current and future risk management practices. Participants from a wide variety of firms include, AP 2/Andra AP-Fonden (AP2), AP3 Tredje AP-fonden (AP3), Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation (APFC), AustralianSuper Pty Ltd, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC) and Workers’ Compensation Board – Alberta.

“The results of our survey clearly show a continued evolution through these uncertain market times with a greater focus on risk management and with more resources dedicated to measuring and managing risk,” said Frank Nielsen, Executive Director of Research at MSCI. “The results reflect how risk management has become both a high priority and a more formalized component of the overall investment process for our clients.”

Since MSCI’s inaugural 2009 survey, The Future of Market Risk Management, asset owner participants have updated their risk management best practices. Many have shortened their strategic asset allocation horizon, often from 3 years to 1 year, and the number of surveyed firms using stress testing has increased by almost 300% since 2009. Participants cited market risk, counterparty risk and liquidity risk as the top three risk concerns. Communication was also a theme – asset owners reported increased and more frequent communication between their risk team, Board and investment teams.

>Other key themes in the 2011 survey results include:

  • A paradigm shift of the risk management function as more resources are dedicated to the management and measurement of risk
  • Plan investment horizon and asset allocation decision making have become more dynamic
  • Stress testing and extreme (tail) risk hedging have become a very high priority
  • External management selection criteria largely depend on transparency and risk control as allocation to alternatives is increasing

The survey was conducted from May – August 2011 with 85 global participants. Interviews were carried out in person and using an on-line interface. Respondents were typically CIOs, CROs, Portfolio Managers, Senior Risk Analysts and Middle Office heads.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Streamlining trading and investment processes with data standards and identifiers?

3 June 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Financial institutions are integrating not only greater volumes of data for use across their organisation but also more varieties of data. As well, that data is being applied to more use cases than ever before, especially regulatory compliance and ESG integration....

BLOG

Augmented Data Quality Webinar: Improving Data With AI

Financial institutions are testing the capabilities of artificial intelligence (AI) and its application to their operational workflows. For many of their use cases, AI is a yet-to-be-proven technology for both their third-party and in-house applications. In its application to data management, however, the stakes are higher: the success of AI in automating processes related to...

EVENT

Data Management Summit London

Now in its 15th year, the Data Management Summit (DMS) in London brings together the European capital markets enterprise data management community, to explore how data strategy is evolving to drive business outcomes and speed to market in changing times.

GUIDE

Entity Data Management Handbook – Second Edition

Entity data management is this year’s hot topic as financial firms focus on entity data to gain a better understanding of customers, improve risk management and meet regulatory compliance requirements. Data management programmes that enrich the Legal Entity Identifier with hierarchy data and links to other datasets can also add real value, including new business...