As a developing country in the process of transformation, the external economic environment is complex, the banking industry is immature, and the forms of risk expression are more special, which puts forward higher requirements for risk management. This paper attempts to explore the development direction and foundation of risk management in China's commercial banks by analyzing the general principles of risk management.
Commercial banks are financial intermediary organizations that deal in money. The biggest difference with the general industry and commerce is that banks take customer deposits and other loans as their main working capital, and the low proportion of their own capital determines that commercial banks themselves have strong inherent risk characteristics. The early banking business mainly provided currency exchange or discounted commercial paper to those businessmen who needed liquidity to earn fees. Banks' funds come from their own capital or deposits from wealthy big customers. Even this seemingly simple business at that time was risky because most of its customers were ocean-going businessmen. It can be seen that "banks survive and prosper by taking risks, which is the most important economic function of banks and the reason for their existence."
With the continuous development of modern commercial banks, the risk objects and nature faced by banks have already surpassed the original connotation. From the object, the credit risk generated by a single loan has evolved into many types of risks, including credit risk, market risk and operational risk. In essence, it has evolved from the initial local risk to the global risk. Although the object and nature of risks have changed a lot, they can be classified as systematic risks and unsystematic risks. Of course, no matter how to classify the types of risks, one thing is certain, that is, risks exist in every link of banking business, and the process of providing financial services by commercial banks is also a process of undertaking and controlling risks.
The risk management of commercial banks is the product of the development of banking business and people's deeper understanding of financial risks. At first, the risk management of commercial banks focused on the risk management of asset business, emphasizing the liquidity of bank assets, which was mainly related to the asset business of commercial banks at that time, such as loans. After the 1960s, the focus of risk management of commercial banks turned to liability risk management, emphasizing the use of borrowed funds to maintain or increase asset scale and income, which not only created conditions for banks to expand their business, but also increased the uncertainty of bank operations. At the end of 1970s, the interest rate in the international market fluctuated violently, so the single asset risk management or liability risk management was no longer applicable. Asset-liability risk management came into being, emphasizing the collaborative management of asset business and liability business, and achieving total balance and risk control through symmetrical repayment period, mutual substitution of business objectives and diversification of assets.
Since 1980s, the concept and technology of bank risk management have been continuously improved, and people have a deeper understanding of risks. Especially, the intensification of banking competition, the narrowing of deposit-loan spreads and the wide use of derivative financial instruments all show the limitations of the original asset-liability risk management theory. In this case, a series of ideas and technologies such as off-balance sheet risk management theory and financial engineering are gradually applied to the risk management of commercial banks, further expanding the business scope of commercial banks, and applying more methods such as mathematics, informatics and engineering to risk management methods, deepening the connotation of risk management as a management. 1988, the Basel Capital Accord was formally promulgated and constantly improved, which marked the further perfection and unification of the risk management and financial supervision theories of western commercial banks, and also meant that a relatively complete risk management principle system of international banking was basically formed.
The 20-odd years since 1980s are a period of great development of the risk management model of international banks. Looking back on the development of bank risk management theory and practice in recent 20 years, almost all the theoretical and practical achievements of commercial banks are concentrated in the Basel Capital Accord. Therefore, for the risk management of commercial banks, the birth and perfection of Basel Accord is a revolutionary achievement of international banking risk management.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision was born in 1975 with the original intention of strengthening international cooperation in banking supervision. The Basel Accord formulated by the Committee marks the official beginning of the coordinated management of international banking. Since then, the Basel Accord has been revised many times and a number of documents and standards have been issued, the most important of which is the Unified Report on Capital and Capital Standards of International Banks (hereinafter referred to as the Basel Report), which stipulates that banks should meet the requirements of total capital and core capital. There are two core ideas: one is to divide the bank's capital into core capital and secondary capital, and the other is. The report marks the transition from asset-liability management to risk management.
Since then, with the intensification of competition in the financial field, financial innovation has diversified and complicated banking business, which has put forward new requirements for bank risk management and financial supervision. A series of banking crises, such as the Asian financial crisis and the collapse of Bahrain Bank, further make people realize that the loss is no longer caused by a single risk, but the result of the interweaving of many risk factors such as credit risk and market risk. Therefore, the Basel Committee published the first draft and the second draft of the new Basel Capital Accord in June 2006 1999 and June 2006/5438+0 respectively. The New Basel Accord fully inherits a series of regulatory principles represented by 1988 Basel Accord, and continues to focus on capital adequacy ratio and credit risk control, and begins to shift from a single capital adequacy ratio constraint to a * * * constraint on bank risk supervision from three aspects: minimum capital requirements, supervision and inspection by regulatory authorities and market discipline constraints. The basic principles of the New Basel Accord are embodied in the following aspects:
First, the risk categories have been further expanded. Although credit risk is still the main risk faced by banks, the new accord begins to pay attention to market risk and operational risk and their destructive power, and in the calculation formula of capital adequacy ratio, the denominator is added from the weighted assets that simply reflect credit risk to reflect market risk and operational risk.
Second, adhere to the regulatory thinking with capital adequacy ratio as the core, but the risk measurement method is more flexible. Bank capital is the basis for banks to resist risks. 1988 Basel Accord puts forward the minimum capital requirements of the banking industry and stipulates the composition of bank capital. Its basic spirit requires bank managers to determine the capital composition according to the bank's ability to bear losses, and to stipulate the minimum capital adequacy ratio according to its risk degree. The new agreement retains the definition of capital and the minimum requirement of 8% capital adequacy ratio of relative risk-weighted assets. At the same time, the new agreement abandons the single regulatory framework of the 1988 agreement. Banks and regulatory authorities can flexibly choose and use according to the complexity of their own business and their own risk management level, allowing banks to choose external ratings and internal ratings, thus prompting banks to continuously improve their own risk management level.
Third, strengthen information disclosure and market constraints. In the New Capital Accord, the Committee put forward more specific requirements for the disclosure of key information such as bank capital structure, risk status and capital adequacy status. The new framework fully affirms that the market has the function of forcing banks to allocate funds effectively and rationally and control risks.
It can be said that the New Basel Accord fully embodies the development direction of the international banking risk management concept. If the banking competition before the birth of Basel Capital Accord is still disorderly competition, then the banking competition under Basel Capital Accord will be the competition of banking risk management ability with risk identification, measurement, evaluation, control and risk culture as its content. This is of great guiding significance to the risk management of China's commercial banks and is the basis and standard for China's commercial banks to participate in international competition in the future.
After decades of development and practice, the risk management of international active banks has accumulated many advanced concepts and methods. International active banks attach importance to managing all risks faced by banks from a global perspective, emphasizing risk management throughout the whole process of banking business, using mathematical models and other tools to conduct a large number of quantitative analysis of risks and measure the overall risk tolerance of banks. In international active banks, risk management is changing from abstruse theory to the conscious consciousness and behavior of all employees.
Compared with foreign banks, there is a big gap between the internal management and external environment of risk management of commercial banks in China:
Externally, the external environment required for bank risk management is immature. There are many reasons, among which the credit system has not yet been established. Foreign banking business emphasizes the principle of good faith. Banks provide customers with not only a product, but also a kind of credit, which reflects their credit habits and credit status. However, China is still a "non-credit-reporting country", and the credit-reporting intermediary service for enterprises and individuals has not been popularized, which not only causes the high cost for banks to conduct customer credit review, but also causes the general lack of social credit awareness and credit ethics, which directly brings difficulties to bank risk management. In addition, the role of external supervision and market restraint is far from being fully exerted. Although the New Basel Capital Accord emphasizes the importance of information disclosure and strengthens the supervision and restraint of investors and the market on the operation and management of banks through standardized information disclosure, in China, the information disclosure of the banking industry is still very irregular and incomplete, and the regulatory measures of the external regulatory authorities are still relatively simple, and the external restraint of the market on banks needs to be strengthened.
From the bank's point of view, there is a big gap between China's commercial banks and foreign advanced banks in terms of concept, technology and methods. Mainly reflected in:
First of all, there is a gap in understanding of risk management. In foreign banks, we attach great importance to the principle of risk-return matching, and regard risk control and profit creation as equally important things. In their own language, "2r" (risk and reward) is the same coin. In other words, risk and return are two sides of the same coin and cannot be separated. However, in China's commercial banks, there is still a gap in understanding the relationship between risk management and business development. On the one hand, some grass-roots personnel or business personnel often mistakenly put risk management on the opposite side of business development, unable to correctly evaluate and treat risks, and think that risk management is an obstacle to business development. On the other hand, some risk managers don't study business, market and efficiency, and simply think that less business development can control risks. By denying business to avoid risks, many developed businesses can't develop, but the overall anti-risk ability of banks is reduced.
Second, the gap in risk management concepts. Risk management is an important part of the bank's operation and management, which requires advanced concepts and technologies. Because of the late start of risk management in China's commercial banks, risk managers can't meet the needs of rapid business development and risk management changes in their risk management concepts. It is embodied in two aspects: first, the concept of comprehensive risk management is still not in place, and credit risk management is still the mainstay, with insufficient attention paid to market risk and operational risk. Second, there is a lack of differentiation in the process of risk management, ignoring the differences in different businesses, different risks and different regions. Not only can it not manage business risks well, but it is also easy to create new risks.
Third, the gap in risk management methods. For a long time, China's commercial banks have paid more attention to qualitative analysis in risk management, such as the policy, legality and safety of loan investment in credit risk management. These analytical methods are indispensable for strengthening risk management. However, compared with foreign risk management methods, quantitative analysis methods of risk management are still lacking, and risk identification and measurement are still very inaccurate. For example, in credit risk management, the micro-analysis of the financial situation of borrowing enterprises and the variable factors of market and product demand of borrowing enterprises is often insufficient.
Fourth, the gap of risk management system. The integrity and independence of the system is the key to ensure that risk management has advanced and objective analysis ability. From the perspective of foreign banks, there are basically relatively independent risk management systems, including the board of directors, risk management departments and risk management personnel. This independence is not only manifested in the independence of risk control from market development, but also in procedural control, internal audit and management. For example, the banking system in Germany follows the "four-eyes principle" in risk control, that is, at least four eyes are fixed on one business at the same time. This "four eyes principle" is not simply understood as "double checking and double approving" for a credit business, but emphasizes that there are two eyes from the market expansion system and two eyes from the risk control system. Only in this way can the bank's risk analysis and business judgment be more comprehensive and accurate. However, in China, the risk management system of some banks is often imperfect, and the risk management is interfered by external factors, and the principle of independence has not been fully reflected.
Fifth, the information technology gap. At present, the biggest obstacle for China's commercial banks to improve their risk management methods is the serious lag in the construction of risk management information system, the lack of a large number of business information needed for risk management, the inability of banks to establish corresponding portfolio management models, the inability to accurately grasp risk exposure, and the distortion of risk management information, which directly affects the scientific decision-making of risk management and increases the difficulty of quantifying risk management methods.
As a developing country in a transitional period, the development of China's commercial banks is not standardized and their ability to resist risks is weak. Especially after joining WTO, commercial banks are facing fierce competition from foreign banks and greater competitive pressure than before. Failure to fundamentally improve the level of risk management will directly affect the normal survival and development of commercial banks in China.
(A) the basic tasks and requirements of risk management of commercial banks in China
At present, the basic task of risk management of commercial banks in China can be divided into two parts. From the perspective of commercial banks, the basic task of risk management is to prevent risks to the maximum extent, ensure the healthy development of banking business and maximize the value of bank shareholders by establishing strict internal control system and good corporate governance mechanism. From the outside of commercial banks, the basic task of risk management is to fundamentally prevent and resolve financial risks by strengthening the supervision of commercial banks, reforming and perfecting the financial system.
In order to realize the basic task of risk management as soon as possible and improve the risk management level of commercial banks in China, four requirements must be met:
First, we should adapt to the requirements of business development. Commercial banks are enterprises that focus on maximizing profits and shareholder value. Business development is the fundamental task of commercial banks, and failure to develop itself is a risk. The fundamental purpose of risk management is to ensure healthy and sustainable business development. It is wrong to ignore the development of risk and ignore the "zero risk" of development. Risk management is not to eliminate risks, but to achieve a reasonable match between risks and benefits within the scope of capital ratio.
Secondly, we must adapt to external regulatory requirements. With the continuous development of the banking industry, the external supervision is becoming more and more strict, and the new Basel Capital Accord regards the supervision of the regulatory authorities as one of the three pillars. For commercial banks, external supervision is the external force of compliance management and the internal demand of strengthening risk control. Regulatory regulations are the "rules of the game" in financial competition. Only by adapting to external supervision can bank risk management have a chance to win in equal market competition.
Third, we should adapt to the requirements of business process reengineering. To play its due role, it is important to have a scientific risk management organizational structure, and the organizational model of risk management is based on the business process of commercial banks. In the past, banks in China were managed according to the planned economy model, with multi-level and centralized power. In the future, commercial banks will re-engineer their business processes around the profit center according to their respective business characteristics, and accordingly, the organizational model of risk management should also meet the requirements of this change. Only in this way can risk management be closely integrated with business.
Fourth, adapt to the requirements of the development trend of risk management in international advanced banks. With the constant changes of international banking, the methods of risk management have changed greatly in the past decades, and this change will continue. The risk management of China's commercial banks is still lacking, and there is still a big gap with international advanced banks. Therefore, China's commercial banks must keep up with the development trend of international risk management and master the advanced technologies and concepts of bank risk management in time to meet the needs of increasingly fierce competition.
(B) the basic principles of risk management in China's commercial banks
The next few years will be a crucial period for the reform of commercial banks in China. To improve the core competitiveness of commercial banks and do a good job in future risk management, the following basic principles should be embodied:
First, the unity of independence and openness. The risk management of commercial banks must be independent, and ensuring the independence of risk management and the "four-eyes principle" is the key to ensure that risk management plays a binding role. But at the same time, the goal of risk management is to increase the value of risk and turn risk from cost to profit. Therefore, the risk management system must be open to the market and international counterparts, understand the needs and changes of business departments, and control risks behind closed doors. This is the biggest risk.
Second, unity and differentiation. The concept, strategy and preference of bank risk management should be unified. What risks banks take, how much risks they take and what risk-return ratio they pursue are the basic principles of bank management, which should be implemented by any department and business. However, different businesses and different markets have different risks, and the same type of business often has different types of risks. For example, Credit Suisse Bank of Switzerland classifies banking risks into seven categories: strategic risk, market risk, credit risk, insurance risk, business volume risk, operational risk and reputation risk. Commercial banks must adopt different management methods according to different risks.
Third, control and service should be unified. Bank risk management has dual nature. On the one hand, risk management should reasonably control the business to match the benefits and risks; On the other hand, risk management fundamentally serves business development and customers, and truly maximizes the value of risk management.
Fourthly, matrix and flattening are unified. The organizational structure of risk management varies widely, and the models adopted are mainly based on efficiency and effectiveness. However, two principles should be emphasized. First, it is emphasized that risk management should cover all business areas, realize matrix management for different business departments and realize risk monitoring for the whole bank; The second is to emphasize the efficiency of risk management, compress the management level on the basis of the original vertical management model and carry out flat management. The two should be coordinated and unified.