The topic of “risk” and what financial services firms are doing to manage or oversee risk has received heightened attention in recent years. The market events of 2007–2009 prompted many firms to take a fresh look at their practices and resources and to incorporate any lessons learned from their own or others’ experience. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has also focused attention on risk oversight practices by requiring companies, including funds, to disclose the board’s risk oversight role. (This paper occasionally uses the term “risk oversight” as a shorthand reference to the board’s oversight of risk management.).
