Simulation in Risk Management

Abstract

Abstract Risk refers to the possibility and the fear of things going wrong (i.e., some combination of events that have negative impact) and the magnitude of the losses resulting from these events. The concept of risk varies depending on the perception of different individuals and in some cases the “perceived” or “risk‐neutral” probabilities of events are more important than the real‐world probabilities, because they drive publicly traded asset prices in the immediate term. The Basel committee provides a framework for regulating minimum capital requirements for banks to cover losses incurred under five different types of risk: credit risk, market risk, operational risk, liquidity risk, and legal risk, and many of these categories carry over to different types of industry. Complex structures or organizations are exposed to many different risk factors or types of risk. The probability of one or more risk events is often very small and difficult to assess for lack of historical experience. There is a relationship among risk factors that may increase the probability of them occurring in combination. Because of the complexity, simulation methodology is quickly becoming the method of choice for evaluating and providing safeguards against the potential losses resulting from risk exposure. In this article, we discuss the use of Monte Carlo simulation as a cost‐effective method to quantify the financial risks of a corporation.