Operational risk managers manage operational risks such as losses due to errors,
breaches, or damages that are caused by people, internal processes, systems, or external events.
Operational risks range from the small, such as the risk of loss due to minor human errors, to the
large, such as the risk of bankruptcy due to serious fraud.
Operational risk manager
Operational risk managers are a part of the operational risk team that manages the risk
posture of the organization. Risk posture is the current risk profile for a company. As an
operational risk manager, you must perform the following tasks.
Define the operational risk framework
Effectively manage the operational risks of an organization by defining a robust risk
management framework. This framework helps to identify risks and to define the control
framework to mitigate those risks. A risk management framework consists of the following
components:
Risk identification
Risk measurement or scoring
Risk mitigation
Risk reporting and monitoring
Set up libraries
Set up comprehensive libraries by doing the following:
Creating risk statements: A risk statement is used to record a risk in a way that
everyone can reach a common agreement on its severity or relative priority.
Creating control objectives: A control objective defines the aim or purpose of
risk-mitigating controls. These controls need continuous monitoring.
Defining entity classes, entity types, and entities: For more information on entities,
see Understanding entities.
Defining the upstream and downstream entities.
The first step is to set up risk statements so that your team has a specific idea of the
risk. For example, simply calling a risk as a cybersecurity risk is not specific.
Cybersecurity risks could mean different things to different people. Therefore, a common
statement to define cybersecurity is created as a risk statement. To create risk statements
and their hierarchy, clearly define the risk impact, the assets at risk, and the source of
risk. By defining the risk statements and creating their hierarchy, you can ensure that the
risk scores are aggregated thus giving the complete risk status.
Conduct risk assessments on a periodic basis
Perform the annual risk assessments according to your organization's policies. Also,
ensure that the risk register is updated and accurate. Create risk assessment scopes and
schedule assessments. To learn more about risk registers, see Risk register in the Risk Workspace.
Record and monitor risk events
Risk events are potential or actual financial and non-financial losses, near misses, and
gains that occur within an organization. To effectively manage risks, it is essential to
monitor risk events, perform a root-cause analysis, and track the remedial tasks.
Organizations use risk events to understand their losses and analyze areas of improvement to
reduce further losses. You must maintain the loss event register to capture complete event
information and to suggest additional controls to mitigate risks in the future.
Define key risk indicators
Monitor the risk posture of your enterprise on a continuous basis. Continuous monitoring
of risks and controls involves identifying and creating key risk and control indicators.
Supporting information can be collected for those indicators through automatic data
collection or manual tasks. Indicator results are then used to create issues for controls,
signal a change in the risk posture, and to provide supporting information for audit
activities and control testing. If the indicator thresholds are breached, you must escalate
to the respective stakeholders.
Manage issues and incidents
An issue is created when there is a change in the environment, process, or system that
poses a threat. An issue requires action to prevent an incident or loss. An incident is a
successful outcome or event with a negative impact. As the operational risk manager, you can
view, create, and manage issues and incidents. Ensure tracking, proper closure, remediation,
and monitoring of issues and incidents.
Communicate the operational risk posture
Define dashboards to report data effectively and accurately. You must create the required
reports which can be shared with the executives and the head of the operational risk team.
The reports and dashboards ensure that the aggregated assessment results across the
organization help to identify the top operational risks for the enterprise.
The following table lists the key tasks that you perform in your role as an operational risk
manager.
