Twenty years ago the academic ideas of risk management were fast taking hold in corporate America. Here’s a look at some of the offerings available in 1994.
As financial innovation spreads, so do the risks and the complexity of covering them. Back in 1994, when companies were trying their hand at derivatives, they soon learned that measuring their inherent risks (let alone, in some cases, understanding the assets themselves), was critical. This came on the heels of JPMorgan’s widely reported use of the so-called “415 report,” which captured for the bank’s CEO, the risk exposure of each of the firm’s trading desk in a single value-at-risk (VaR) number. VaR established new possibilities in risk accounting and reporting, which the industry and companies quickly adopted – along with other ways of measuring risk.
In “Risk Trees in the Woods” from the November 28, 1994 issue, International Treasurer gave a brief overview of measuring risk.
“With multiple risk methodologies to choose from, treasurers should know what each does and then apply that most appropriate within the context of their company’s business objectives,” IT wrote. The methodologies described included deterministic methods, which included “scenarios, sensitivity, the ‘Greeks’ (delta, gamma, etc.), and stress testing;” probabilistic methods, which included JP Morgan’s RiskMetrics, Monte Carlo simulation, and historical simulation and finally analytic methods, which include “linear and non-linear regression techniques.”