Chapter 14 Enterprise Risk Management in Practice: A European Perspective

Risks are an integral part of business, and enterprise risk management (ERM) is making its way towards effectively leading enterprises in addressing these risks. This chapter seeks to describe how European ERM practitioners minimize the risks they face by taking into consideration insights from the sector's best practices reflected in the ISO 31000 Risk Management Guidelines , COSO's ERM framework , contributions from university researchers, from the national risk management associations and the Federation of European Risk Management Associations (FERMA). This chapter will underscore the need for total alignment of practices and make a case for the need to align between ERM, governance, accounting and disclosure systems. In addition, there is no doubt that ERM – when incorporated in operations through appropriate governance mechanisms and accounting practices – could help firms respond to real-time volatilities more effectively. However, ERM practitioners' perspectives differ slightly from those of accountants in that no extensive legally binding rules are required in risk management, and a different scope of work is pursued.