Random Thoughts on The City, Wall St & Capitalism

After Enron, Worldcom, Global Crossing , Parmalat, Refco . The list will probably go on forever and the introduction of the wholly ineffective and inappropriate Sarbanes-Oxley bureaucracy , a new breed of no-jobs have appeared in the financial services scene. Every company seems to have one or two or a whole department. But does anyone actually know what they do? Flow charts and reports mainly. That go straight to the operating committee then of course filed and never to be seen again. If you have a robust new business approvals process, a vaguely competent legal department, good business development managers , competent internal auditors reasonable operational controls you don't need career risk managers. Most of them seem to be ex-accountants or lawyers. These people have had years of training in avoiding risk completely, not identifying it or controlling it. But perhaps the reason they really exist is so banks have ready made scape goats when things go wrong. In which case you should hire more of them just in case things get rocky.
RB