Progress Post Walker - The Evolution Of Board Audit And Risk Committees In Financial Services

Background

The financial crisis highlighted imbalances between the increasing growth and complexity of the financial services industry and  fundamental failures in governance. A key response to these challenges was the 2009 Walker Report which recommended, amongst other items, the establishment of a separate Board Risk Committee as a means of addressing the overload of Non-Executive Directors on Audit Committees and the need for a closely-related but separate capability to focus on risk in future strategy.

Key findings

Over four years on from the Walker Report, this paper looks at how firms are responding to the challenges and fulfilling the increased expectations, with particular focus on the Board Risk Committee versus the Audit Committee.