Risk Management 2026
How to deal with geopolitical risks, central banking-style
Managing the fastest-rising risk category requires a combination of old and new thinking
Vast majority of central banks taking action on climate risk
Nearly one in five banks reflect climate risk in reserves management and collateral eligibility
Risk management reviews are most common assessment method
Centralised teams are less likely to conduct external or management evaluations
UK’s Orange Book risk approach rarely used by central banks
Only three centralised risk management departments utilise principle
Benchmarks data reveals AI use gap in risk management
Central banks from the Americas are most concerned about deepfakes, data shows
Staff error is largest cause of op risk at central banks
Legacy systems tend to trigger most threats in jurisdictions with greater than average number of incidents
Op risk incidents average over 100 a year among central banks
Financial impact is risk managers’ strongest metric for gauging incidents’ severity
Phishing and ransomware are central banks’ main cyber threats
Teams widely use training, monitoring and privilege management to mitigate cyber threats
Just under half of risk departments are sufficiently staffed
Units with satisfied staffing levels earn below global average annual salary
Mitigation and reporting are leading components of risk strategy
Decentralised teams more likely to embed philosophy in divisional decision-making
Most centralised risk teams prioritise cyber security
Decentralised teams primarily cover credit and counterparty, op and market risks
Risk policies widely reviewed by committee in larger teams
Central banks with larger teams favour risk committees over CROs
Middle income central banks have highest number of risk staff
But ratios of risk management employees to total headcount vary widely