Management Response to Human Errors and Key Controls in Banks

Abstract

Given the significant role that banks play in the global economy and the inherent risks they encounter in their day-to-day operations, studying operational risk management in banks is crucial. The purpose of this research is to comprehend the operational risk management challenges in banks, mainly focusing on human errors and management response to them, as human factors often play an important role in operational failures. The aim of this paper is to investigate the governance cultures and operational risk management strategies of banks, to identify the gaps in risk mitigation activities and controls and to determine the improvements needed to minimize human errors. This research aims to provide prospective operational risk management solutions for banks by gathering and analysing survey data from finance sector employees worldwide as well as empirical information, making the topic practical. Factors influencing operational risk management form the basis of the qualitative method used in this study. The main findings indicate that management’s attitude towards human errors and the role of risk governance structures, such as risk committees and internal control functions, have significant relationships with the reasons for human errors in banks and thus have an impact on operational risk management in banks. Banks need to examine their risk management frameworks; evaluate the standard reactions of bank management to human error, such as root cause analysis, incident investigation, and planning for corrective action; strengthen their working policies; integrate more lessons learned from sessions and training; re-evaluate their internal controls; and analyse their escalation procedures. Studying management response to human errors and key controls in banks has several practical implications for organizations. First, insights from this research can help banks enhance their risk management practices, identify their weaknesses, improve their internal controls, and put preventive measures in place to reduce the possibility and consequences of human errors. Second, a positive safety culture can be promoted by encouraging open collaboration, accountability and learning from mistakes. Third, enhancing employee improvement and training can be achieved by understanding the needs of employee development based on the insights from this study. Finally, studying management responses to human errors can help banks oversee compliance with regulatory reporting standards, investigation protocols, and corrective measure specifications.