Financial risk management is the practice of economic value in a firm by using financial instruments to manage exposure to risk, Operational risk, credit risk and market risk. Other types include Foreign exchange risk, Shape risk, Volatility risk, Liquidity risk, Inflation risk, Business risk, Legal risk, Reputational risk, Sector risk etc. Similar to general risk management, financial risk management requires identifying its sources, measuring it, and plans to address them.
Contents
Financial risk management can be qualitative and quantitative. As a specialization of risk management, financial risk management focuses on when and how to hedge using financial instruments to manage costly exposures to risk.
In the banking sector worldwide, the Basel Accords are generally adopted by internationally active banks for tracking, reporting and exposing operational, credit and market risks.
When to use financial risk management
Finance theory (i.e., financial economics) prescribes that a firm should take on a project when it increases shareholder value. Finance theory also shows that firm managers cannot create value for shareholders, also called its investors, by taking on projects that shareholders could do for themselves at the same cost.
When applied to financial risk management, this implies that firm managers should not hedge risks that investors can hedge for themselves at the same cost. This notion was captured by the so-called "hedging irrelevance proposition": In a perfect market, the firm cannot create value by hedging a risk when the price of bearing that risk within the firm is the same as the price of bearing it outside of the firm. In practice, financial markets are not likely to be perfect markets.
This suggests that firm managers likely have many opportunities to create value for shareholders using financial risk management, wherein they have to determine which risks are cheaper for the firm to manage than the shareholders. Market risks that result in unique risks for the firm are commonly the best candidates for financial risk management.
The concepts of financial risk management change dramatically in the international realm. Multinational Corporations are faced with many different obstacles in overcoming these challenges. There has been some research on the risks firms must consider when operating in many countries, such as the three kinds of foreign exchange exposure for various future time horizons: transactions exposure, accounting exposure, and economic exposure.
FRM®
FRM®(Certified Financial Risk Manager Program) is an international professional certification offered by GARP(The Global Association of Risk Professionals). GARP is the only recognized membership association for professional risk managers. GARP is a not-for-profit organization and aims at creating a cultural environment of risk awareness and management at every organizational level. The corporate headquarter of GARP is located in Jersey City, New Jersey with a regional office in London, England. GARP enables the risk community to make better informed risk decisions through “creating a culture of risk awareness®”.
There are half a million members across 195 countries of the GARP. Central banks, commercial banks, investment banks, corporations, asset management firms, academic institutions and government agencies employ the members of GARP.
FRM curriculum is updated annually by a group of distinguished risk professionals employed internationally at nearly every major bank, asset management firm, hedge fund, consulting firm, and regulator in the world.
FRM joins a network of professionals in more than 190 countries and territories worldwide.