About the reasons for operational risks and the reservation system of potential losses in commercial banks during a transitional economy period

Irakli Mekvabishvili

In the work there presented the author’ s view on determination of operational risks in commercial banks and the necessity of investigation of their reasons, since in modern banking practice appropriate risk management represents one of the main elements in the system of intelligible risk management.

The author divides the reasons for operational risks into four parts (inefficient system of internal control; improper fulfillment of duties and functions by a bank’s personnel; unsatisfactory work of a bank’s technical systems; the effect of outside factors) and he fully considers each of them.
In the author’s opinion, for provision of a proper risk management in banks the availability of a separate structural unit in a bank is necessary, which will implement a monitoring of corresponding financial risks, that is it will reveal the reasons for the operational risks and will timely eradicate them. The author also considers it important to introduce in banks a reservation system against possible losses caused by operational risks, in which both prospective and unforeseen losses will be envisaged. Besides the reservation system, the author recommends introduction in banks of special norms for timely and correct analyses of operational risks, as well as systematic and fruitful use of the insurance system for insurance of both banking operations and against improper personnel activities for minimizing possible losses.