Systemic Aspects of Risk Management in Banking and Finance

The paper provides a critical summary of recent developments in banking and finance and discusses risk management strategies for banks and for banking supervision. Special attention is paid to systemic risks which arise because the nexus of interbank contracts is so complex that counterparty credit risks and their correlations with underlying risks are transparent neither to banks nor to bank supervisors. Another section discusses "excessive risk taking" by banks and provides a critical analysis of the attempt to control banks by capital adequacy regulation.