MANAGEMENT AND DISCLOSURE OF OPERATIONAL RISK AND THE BASEL ACCORDS: THE CASE OF THE LARGEST PORTUGUESE BANKS

Abstract

Risk management is an activity that is, increasingly, perceived as being inseparable from an adequate organizational management. The Basel Accords, particularly in the banking industry, have been contributing to enforce this vision. This study tries to verify, especially at operational risk management level, in what situation the financial institutions are, considering the referred Accords. We focus on the evaluation of the stage of development of the activities linked to operational risk management and some relevant issues for the Portuguese banks. Through the 2010 annual accounts of the five larger Portuguese banks, we analyze some key indicators. We found the existence of operational risk management structures and the steps of the process adopted, the methods for calculating the capital requirements for the coverage of this type of risk; the form of definition of the ratings and the respective responsible and the total loss by type of operational risk in these entities. We verified that the selected banks developed fully the activities related to operational risk management and were moving towards an integrated approach to risk management. In addition, they fulfilled the general requirements of Basel II, but to date, Basel III didn’t seem to be reason of concern and/or disclosure of information.