Comptroller of the Currency Highlights Importance of Risk Management

Comptroller of the Currency, Thomas J. Curry, gave the attached speech before the Risk Management Association's Annual Risk Management Conference. In his remarks, Curry cited a recent OCC report, the first Semiannual Risk Perspective report, which was intended to provide insights into the risks that the OCC is most concerned about. (A second Semiannual Risk Perspective report is due out later this year.) The following three broad areas of concern were laid out:

1. the earnings challenges which many institutions face in an environment of slow growth and volatile financial markets;
2. mortgage lending, including home equity lines of credit; and
3. the overarching strategic risk that is "inherent when financial institutions search for greater profitability in an uncertain environment, sometimes taking on inappropriate types of risk."

Curry went on to state that the OCC is watching reserves very closely, and that the OCC expects national banks and federal savings associations to maintain them at appropriate levels.

See: Remarks by Thomas J. Curry Comptroller of the Currency before the Risk Management Association’s Annual Risk Management Conference - Dallas, Texas.