Impact of Ownership and Size on Operational Risk Management Practices: A Study of Banks in India

Abstract

The financial crisis and resulting failure of large banks worldwide has shaken the entire world. Improper management of operational risk has been touted as one of the reasons for this failure. In light of the rising importance of operational risk management (ORM) in banks, the study explores the range of ORM practices followed by a cross section of Indian banks and compares them with the banks worldwide. The study also analyses the impact of size and ownership of banks on these practices. Reliability analysis using Cronbach alpha model, Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett’s test of sphericity was used to test reliability of questionnaire and justifies the use of factor analysis. Factor analysis was performed to extract the most important variables in ORM. The small size of bank was observed to be a deterrent to deep involvement of operational risk functionaries, collection and usage of external loss data and data collection and analysis. Further, the performance/preparedness of public sector and old private sector banks lagged behind peers in usage of key reporting components, such as risk and control self-assessment (RCSA), key risk indicators (KRI), scenarios, collection and usage of external loss data, data collection and analysis and quantification and modelling of operational risk.