Required Reading:
 Strategy and Risk Oversight

for Bank Directors

You can easily imagine many community bank directors, usually outside independent directors, saying:

"You know, I get the theory of risk management in banking, and yes, I understand and appreciate the 50,000-foot level sermons about risk, and sure, I'm slowly learning the jargon of the craft of risk management; but I still have an important question --- What practical actions should I personally be taking regarding risk oversight at my meetings of the bank's board of directors?"

To help answer that question, I came across a really terrific article titled Strategy and Risk Oversight, written by Charles Thayer, in the September 2014 issue of the Western Independent Bankers Directors Digest newsletter.  Besides being Chairman Emeritus of the American Association of Bank Directors, Charles is a highly respected banker with a long track record in the industry.  He is a prominent thinker and frequent speaker on issues of bank corporate governance.  

Being a bank director himself, he knows how the talk walks.

It's been said that wisdom is knowledge leavened with the lessons of practical experience.  It was applause-inducing to see Charles share his perspectives and weave the various lines of the risk oversight melody into a harmony of actual board-level practice.  His article deserves broader distribution.  Not an ounce of fluff in it, but a ton of value.

The link to the article is here: Strategy and Risk Oversight and a .pdf copy is here.

The link should work just fine, but unfortunately, some corporate IT firewalls will block access to the .pdf copy.