Bloomberg Businessweek’s special report on risk management contains some good reading.

This story addresses the risk cultures within organizations. Here’s a passage:

Nearly half of executive teams lack the information they need to manage effectively because employees withhold vital input out of fear that doing otherwise will reflect poorly on them. This restricted information flow can cripple a company’s ability to identify and respond to internal and external threats. A recent survey by the Corporate Executive Board of more than 400,000 employees across various industries reveals that companies that break down two key barriers to honest feedback not only reduce fraud and misconduct, but also deliver peer-beating shareholder returns by a substantial margin.

This article examines the changing role of the chief audit executive, a topic spelled out in more detail in this white paper. Here’s a taste of the article:

With risk now a core focus for boards of directors and senior executives, the CAE, who has traditionally been relegated to the tactical execution of an annual audit plan, is uniquely positioned to play a central role in the risk-intelligent company, thanks to his or her visibility into, and understanding of, the enterprise’s holistic risk-management activities. For companies to maximize the strategic contributions of the CAE, however, they must have both a business-aware auditor and an audit-aware board and leadership group. ###

Every 3 years since 1989, the Bank for International Settlements has collected and analyzed data from central banks around the globe in order to get a handle on the global foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives markets. 2010’s Triennial Central Bank Survey, the eighth overall, involved 50-plus central banks, reporting for more than 1,300 financial institutions. The survey looked at five categories of instruments: spot transactions, outright forwards, foreign exchange swaps, currency swaps, and currency options.

Several findings stand out. First, the foreign exchange market grew, although at a more moderate pace than was seen in 2007. Much of the growth was due to higher trading activity of what are referred to as “other” financial institutions, such as hedge and mutual funds. The proportion of cross-border transactions grew from 62 to 65 percent. And, while most FX trades are denominated in U.S. dollars, the dollar’s share of overall FX market continues to slide. more

A recent survey conducted by APQC revealed that managers of financial shared services operations are keen to deliver “business intelligence” to their internal customers who reside within business units. One example of this would be analyses of customer payment patterns and the reasons for payment slowdowns. Even fancier would be granular analyses of profitability by customer with multiple views of sales volumes in distinct regional markets.

My curiosity was sparked. Shared services delivering financial analytics? Isn’t the enduring goal of shared services to centralize routine transaction processing and drive down activity costs by leveraging economies of scale, integrated IT systems, and inexpensive labor? Are shared services directors changing course? To learn more, I attended a conference called the Finance Transformation 2010 Summit produced by the advocacy and education firm SSON (shared services and outsourcing network). For two days, I listened to detailed presentations by senior people who run shared services at globe-spanning companies ranging from Hewlett Packard to Citibank. Sure enough, there’s change under way. more