Risk Essay Example Competitive Environment and Risk Assessment

Competitive Environment and Risk Assessment Barclays Bank is one of the leading banks in the world with operations in 60 international countries. The current financial crisis has caused serious problems for financial institutions, and Barclays is no exception. The recent fiasco has thus strengthened the argument that there must be a more comprehensive corporate governance code for the financial institutions. (Kalbers, 2009). Barclays therefore has to prepare itself for the relatively new and more radical changes that may take place in future in terms of new corporate governance challenges. Competitive Pressures Historically, it has been observed that the Britain’s Corporate Governance movement has been hijacked by top accountancy firms in order to maximize value for shareholders; other stakeholders, such as employees, customers and the community, have been relatively neglected.(Cassidy, 2003).   Today’s environment is relatively more volatile than beforehand due to perceived threats to the global financial system specially in the aftermath of the current financial crisis. It is critical to note that in such an environment, the overall competitive pressures are mounting on many financial institutions including Barclays to maintain their positions within the market. Of great significance is that the current financial crisis has resulted in the decline of loanable funds to the consumers; this will likely result in a drastic decrease in revenue as well as profitability for Barclays Bank. The recent results however, indicate that the firm has been able to withstand pressures and the results of the first half of 2009 has shown considerable improvement by the bank. Strategic Challenges One of the most important challenges faced by the Barclays Bank is to keep its dominance over its traditional markets. Though the bank has been able to meet the current global financial crises however, its ability to service the market has reduced due to overall external economic conditions. Firm therefore needs to revise its internal control mechanism in such a manner that it successful withstands external challenges. The new capital requirements under BASEL II are another significant challenge because it will require Barclays to manage and maintain a certain level of capital against its assets. Similarly, the collective malpractices in financial system as a whole is another significant challenge because banks have indulged themselves into activities which   Customer services is another significant challenge in such scenario where profits are declining and expectations are rising for more efficient customer services. In order to cope with the increased pressures of the financial c rises, Bank of England has significantly lowered the interest rates whereas the overall cost structure of the banks have remained the same which therefore resulted into lose profitability for the banks. This also indicates the UK’s financial institutions are still finding it hard to achieve a balance between risk and reward and subsequent development of corporate governance mechanisms which can help achieve organizations this aim.(Gentle, 2009). Recommendations In order to overcome these strategic challenges, Barclays has to strengthen its internal controls and procedures. The non-existence of checks and balances on the activities of the managers provide incentives to the managers to engage into such activities which are potentially not in favor of all stakeholders. The overall focus shall therefore be on ensuring complete and more transparent reporting of the all issues of the bank while at the same time implementing an effective corporate governance code by strengthening the role of various other stakeholders. References Cassidy, D (2003) Maximizing shareholder value: the risks to employees, customers and the community. Corporate Governance. 3 (2) 32 – 37 Gentle, (2009) Work in progress?: How the credit crunch has its roots in the lack of integrated governance and control systems. The Journal of Risk Finance. 9 (2) 206 210 Kalbers, L (2009) fraudulent financial reporting, corporate governance and ethics: 1987-2007. Review of Accounting and Finance. 8 (2) 187-209 So Shall We Write Your Assignment Too? We’ve done it for thousands of students, and they are thankful and satisfied. Since you’ve been reading all this, you most probably want to pay someone to do your assignment. Trust us; that someone is our company! Open your account and place order now.

intelligence tests essays

intelligence tests essays Its a sad but true fact that people are constantly being measured and tested everyday. This testing is not necessarily for themselves, but for others to rate and categorize the subjectee. That person is then placed and stereotyped based on the result of a test. This is unfair. However, unfair as it may be, it is still a reality today that everyone encounters during their lifetime. The job market uses tests to see where people will fit in the most with what company. Colleges use tests to help determine who is selected to go to their school, and psychologists use tests to help determine if someone needs help or not. Using tests to place someone in a certain category is unfair, unjust, and biased. People are raised and brought up to their own custom, which doesnt always fit in with others customs. People experience different situations throughout their life and often cannot relate similar experiences together. It has been shown that certain races of a culture score higher than certain races of another culture. This is not due to that one race is smarter than the other; it could be the fact that the test asked questions that favored one group or another. If you give a group of American students a test on the history of North America and compare the scores to the scores of some students from Ethiopia, of course the Americans would score higher. But you can easily reverse that effect by having the test on a topic the Ethiopians know quite a bit about and then compare it to the Americans (Kasschau, 1995). My point is the tests have to be equal and fair to each and every person who will take the test, which is impossible to do. Everyone will have different experiences thro ughout their life and there is no way preventing that from happening. Another discrepancy has come up with intelligence testing, and that is of sex bias. In the widely-taken SAT, the ratio of men to women me ...