The paper explores how the adoption of enterprise risk management (ERM) practices influences external audit fees in large pharmaceutical firms. The results show that the mere presence of a Chief Risk Officer does not influence external audit fees. However, when we take the different ERM...

Enterprise risk management (ERM) has emerged as a framework for more holistic and integrated risk management with an emphasis on enhanced governance of the risk management system. ERM should theoretically reduce the volatility of cash flows, agency risk and information risk – ultimately...

Risk is a vital concept to grasp when investing in a firm or project. It is also a key ingredient required to evaluate the cost of capital and perform a valuation. An organization’s capital structure, specifically the amount of leverage and debt financing employed, must be accounted for to...

Analysis of the global financial crisis has served to highlight the requirement to improve existing enterprise risk management (ERM) oversight and this requirement particularly applies at the strategic level of the board and executive management. For an ERM program to operate effectively there...

Institutional investors pay considerable attention to the quality of a company's governance. Unfortunately, it is difficult for outside observers to reliably gauge governance quality. Oftentimes, poor governance manifests itself only after decisions have been made and their outcomes known. We...

The litmus test for an effective compensation program is whether it provides “pay for performance.” While the concept of pay for performance is simple, its implementation is not. In particular, boards must consider not only whether a compensation plan encourages executives to pursue...

In this updated Closer Look, we examine the tensions between corporate culture, financial incentives, and employee conduct as illustrated by the Wells Fargo cross-selling scandal. In 2016, Wells Fargo admitted that employees had opened as many as 2 million accounts without customer authorization...

On 16th November 2009, SUERF, CEPS and the Belgian Financial Forum coorganized a conference "Crisis management at cross-roads" in Brussels. All papers in the present volume are based on contributions at the conference and the SUERF Annual Lecture which followed the event.

Using textual analysis of earnings conference calls, we quantify firm level risk arising from the reliability of the supply chain from 2002 to 2020. Our proxy for perceived supply chain risk exhibits cross-sectional and time-series variation that aligns with reasonable priors and is...

Background: Fraud risk assessment as a control mechanism is becoming necessary due to continuous and never-ending fraudulent activities. Frauds arise regardless of the existence of codes for corporate governance and available control activities such as those of internal and external audit units....