1 Operational Risk Management for Insurers

Insurance companies face many risks, which should be managed, but their core competences and main contribution to society is to accept the risks underwritten by businesses and individuals, hence the strategic importance for citizens and governments that insurers protect their assets and revenues, and that policies and scientific methods are established to ensure a minimum financial solvency and the continuity of its operations. Operational risk is increasingly important in the management and corporate governance of insurance companies, which increasingly have greater implications and interactions with the other risks that this insurers face, such as market or credit risks. The management and analysis of operational risk is a necessary activity for insurers, presenting many opportunities for development and a major field of study on conceptual and practical issues due to the particularity and complexity implied in this type of risk. The new European regulation, Solvency II, will inexorably increase the need of an effective management of operational risks and the development and implementation of structured methodologies for its analysis. It is also reviewed the classical technique of modeling, Value at Risk (VaR), and other methodologies for the analysis and quantification of operational risk for insurers