Risk in Banking

Risk in Banking: A Post-Crisis Perspective analyses the causes of the crisis 2007–2008 and presents a new, fresh perspective on the risks involved in banking, especially operational risk. A Hispanic waiter living off tips gets a 1.2 million dollar mortgage. Soon afterwards, the worst global financial crisis in 80 years hits banks, which collapse like dominoes, in many countries; many currencies, including the Polish zloty, weaken dramatically. How is it possible that the world’s best-paid minds have created such a pathological financial system? Thousands of studies have been devoted to this question. However, most of them neglect some essential factors, political and human. For one thing, the policies of presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush aimed at creating equal opportunities for the least affluent social groups all too often boiled down to giving away loans. For another, the executive remuneration and incentive systems at the largest American banks encouraged undertaking risky and speculative transactions.