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Call for Papers - Impact of COVID-19 on risk management in financial institutions
Special Issue of the Journal of Risk Management in Financial Institutions:
Impact of COVID-19 on risk management in financial institutions
Guest Editors: Dr Tom Wilson, CRO, Allianz and Dr Christian S. Pedersen, Head of Risk and Compliance for Growth Markets, Accenture
Copy deadline: 18th August 2020
COVID-19 is impacting every country, industry and customer segment served by the financial services industry. In the short-term, we will see significant stress to balance sheets and profits as growth stalls and markets become more volatile, the impact of which are further complicated by government relief packages; in addition, financial services firms have also had to manage increasing complexity in order to maintain operational resiliency and customer satisfaction while work from home restrictions are in place. In the medium-term, most major industries will see a sharp change in competitive dynamics and demand, and speed up their reliance on digitization and automation, prompting a change in their demand for financial services. Likewise, consumer spending will be significantly hit, putting pressure on lending businesses, at a time when low interest rates are altering retirement insurance and deposit business. Combining this with ongoing industry initiatives around digitization and the continuing geopolitical and trade tensions, COVID-19 will help shape and accelerate us toward a 'new normal' for financial services, albeit with increased uncertainty along the way.
The implications for risk management in financial services will be significant. Post-GFC, heavy investments in credit risk and stress-testing infrastructure were quickly followed by a continued focus on conduct risk, fraud and compliance. COVID-19 will reinforce another tack back towards credit in the short term. It will also highlight conduct, especially for insurance products that failed to perform as insurers and customers may have wanted. Risk management will also play a strong role in strategic planning, whilst adhering to a demand to cut costs, leaving little time to think about changes to the long-term operating model.
In order to shed light on the issues facing CROs and their organisations and to guide potential solutions, we are seeking original papers from practitioners, academics, policy makers, regulators, and consultants on how COVID-19 will impact risk management in financial services. Potential topics could include:
• What are the major immediate impacts of COVID-19 on the CRO’s agenda?
• Stress-testing techniques applied to credit portfolios, insurance portfolios, balance sheets, liquidity and earnings for COVID-19 impacts (and potentially taking into account government relief packages)
• Risk management's role in setting the post-COVID-19 strategy for the institution
• The impact of COVID-19 on current risk management processes
• Assessing the trade-off between reputation risk and 'COVID-19 pay-out risk' in insurance
• Strategic risk from entering/existing business lines or emerging markets as COVID-19 triggers cost concerns and changes risk-adjusted profitability of markets
• Will COVID-19 lead to more government ownership and/or changes in the role of financial services?
• Can risk management help avoid COVID-19 leading to more zombie banks?
• What could be the regulatory response to COVID-19, and how could this compound the regulatory burden on the financial services industry?
• Is government intervention going to help financial services handle the COVID-19 crisis?
Submission guidelines
The deadline for the submission of articles to this special issue is the 18th August 2020. The following types of articles will be considered for publication:
The following types of articles will be considered for publication:
- Practice articles: Thought pieces, briefings, case studies and other contributions written by practitioners. Articles should be 2,000 to 5,000 words in length.
- Research papers: Contributions which explore new models, theories and research in risk management. The principal management implications of the submission should be included. Articles should be up to 6,000 words in length.
All submissions will be peer-reviewed to ensure that they are of direct, practical relevance to those working in the field.
Further, more specific guidance for authors on format and style can be found here.
Questions about this issue may be directed to the Guest Editors, Dr Tom Wilson and Dr Christian S. Pedersen and Julie Kerry, the Publisher.
Manuscript submissions and enquiries should be submitted to the Publisher, Julie Kerry.