Deloitte Article Explores Risk Oversight Considerations for Boards

According to a Deloitte survey of over 500 crisis management executives, 80 percent of organizations worldwide have had to mobilize their crisis management teams at least once in the past two years, with cyber and safety incidents topping the list of crises requiring management intervention. According to Deloitte consultants, directors may wish to learn about leading practices around proactive risk management, crisis management, cyber risk, and physical security in addition to understanding a company’s risks and response capabilities. While public company boards deploy a management approach that is not required of fund directors, the article addresses issues fund boards might consider in their interactions with the investment manager and fund oversight. Directors and governance committees may consider questions such as: what is the board’s role during a crisis at the fund manager and what educational tools would help directors prepare for crises at the manager and fund level? Deloitte consultants suggest questions boards can ask in considering a firm’s risk management policies, such as:

What is the company’s incident response plan?
Does the company have a proactive and holistic plan in place to prevent and detect potential threats to people, material, information and facilities?

Directors may also wish to review the MFDF’s white paper on board oversight of risk, available here.