Internal Assessment of Credit Concentration Risk Capital: A Portfolio Analysis of Indian Public Sector Bank

This paper aims at working out a more risk sensitive measure of concentration risk and captures its impact in terms of capital number that will help the bank’s top management to manage it efficiently as well as meet the regulatory compliance. We have designed a more risk sensitive measures like expected loss based Hirschman-Herfindahl Index (HHI), loss correlation approach (single as well as multi factor), credit value at risk (C-VaR) based on bank’s internal loss data history that would measure credit concentration and suggest the amount of capital required to cover concentration risk. Using detailed borrower wide, facility wide, industry and regional loan portfolio data of a mid sized public sector bank in India, our paper attempts to provide a detail insight into measurement of concentration risk in credit portfolio and understand its impact in terms of economic capital for the bank as a whole. Regulators and other stakeholders worldwide are asking for more accurate and precise measure of concentration risk in terms of capital numbers. The detailed analysis and methods used in this paper is an attempt to find out a solution in this direction.Portfolio Credit Concentration Risk, Bank Capital

The Economics of Natural Disasters - Implications and Challenges for Food Security

A large and growing share of the world's poor lives under conditions in which high hazard risk coincides with high vulnerability. In the last decade, natural disasters claimed 79,000 lives each year and affected more than 200 million people, with damages amounting to almost US $ 70 billion annually. Experts predict that disasters will become even more frequent and their impact more severe, expecting a five-fold global cost increase over the next fifty years, mainly due to climate change and a further concentration of the world's population in vulnerable habitats. The paper argues that in order to mitigate disaster impact on poor population groups, development policy and disaster management need to become mutually supportive. Focusing on challenges disasters pose to food security, it proposes that in disaster-prone locations measures to improve disaster resilience should be an integral part of food security policies and strategies. It expands the twin-track approach to hunger reduction to a "triple track approach", giving due attention to cross-cutting disaster risk management measures. Practical areas requiring more attention include risk information and analysis; land use planning; upgrading physical infrastructures; diversification and risk transfer mechanisms. Investments in reducing disaster risk will be most needed where both hazard risk and vulnerability are high. As agriculture is particularly vulnerable to disaster risk, measures to reduce this vulnerability, i. e. protecting agricultural lands, water and other assets, should get greater weight in development strategies and food security policies. Investing in disaster resilience involves trade-offs. Identifying the costs, benefits and trade -offs involved will be a prominent task of agricultural economists.Food Security and Poverty, Resource /Energy Economics and Policy,

How does ownership structure and manager wealth influence risk? : a look at ownership structure, manager wealth, and risk in commercial banks

Bank managers, stockholders, and directors must work closely together in deciding what risks their bank will assume and how to control the bank's overall risk exposure. Each decision-maker will have to understand the risk preferences of others in order to make mutually acceptable decisions and develop policies that reflect all of their concerns. To the extent that weak risk control is tied to management and ownership structure, bank examiners must also understand the basic components of a sound management and ownership structure if the examiner is to suggest corrective steps for a problem institution. ; This study looks at a sample of Tenth Federal Reserve District banks to investigate the relationship between bank risk, ownership of the bank by managers, and the degree to which managers and owners have their wealth concentrated in their bank stockholdings. Data for 270 randomly selected banks reveal that ownership and wealth diversification of bank owners and managers do influence bank risk. These effects extend not only to the overall risk of the bank, but are also reflected uniquely in asset quality measures, bank leverage, and other parts of a bank's risk exposure. ; Major findings highlight connections between bank risk, ownership structure, and manager wealth. Banks are less risky when bank managers have a higher concentration of wealth in their bank and, thus, have more to lose from taking on additional risk. Possibly seeking to avoid large loan losses that could threaten their employment, hired managers typically operate their banks with lower credit risk than banks with owner managers. Using capital as a buffer against risk, owner-manager banks tend to have higher capitalization than banks with hired managers. Stock ownership by hired managers provides incentives to operate their bank more in line with the risk preferences of owners. Finally, a hired-manager bank will be less risky when a major owner monitoring the bank has much of his or her wealth concentrated in the bank's stock. ; Thus, ownership structure and concentration of wealth in bank equity have a significant influence on bank risk. Understanding how risk preferences depend on ownership and wealth diversification can be valuable information to managers and owners as they grapple with the level and type of risk to take in their banks.Risk ; Banking structure ; Federal Reserve District, 10th

Analisis Risiko Kesehatan Pajanan Benzene pada Pekerja di Bagian Laboratorium Industri Pengolahan Minyak Bumi

Benzene (C6H6) is a compound produced from petroleum distillation process. Workers in the laboratories of petroleum revinery unit industry are individuals at risk due to exposure to benzene. The purpose of this research is to estimate the health risks of benzene exposures mainly via inhalation in continuous time. This research did at laboratory of PT. Pertamina RU IV Cilacap. This research was descriptive research with environmental health risks analysis method. Total sample were 51 respondents. Benzene concentration measurements was at 8 points in laboratory. The anthropometric characteristics include weight gain, long exposure, exposure frequency, and duration of exposure. The measures include the analysis of hazard identification, dose-response analysis, exposure analysis, risk characteristics, and risk management. The results of the average concentration of benzene from 8 point was 0,287 mg/m3. The average yield intake of all workers on non-carcinogenic effects was 0.0027 mg/kg/day. The average of workers intakes of carcinogenic effect was 0.0039 mg/kg/day. A total of 19 respondents (37.35) had risk of non-carcinogenic effects (because RQ> 1) in realtime exposure and 100% were risk on lifetime exposure. At the carcinogenic effects 20 respondents (39.2%) had a risk of carcinogenic effect (because ECR>10-4) in realtime exposure and 100% were risk on lifetime exposure. Levels of benzene in the air environment of the lab in 2016 may lead to non- cancer health risks and cancer . It is necessary to risk management by reducing the concentration of benzene , reducing the length of exposure , reducing the frequency of exposure , or reducing the duration of exposure

Drivers for the Adoption of Risk Management Practices by Farmers in Ghana: Critical Inquiry from the Wa East District

This study seeks to identify the drivers for the adoption of risk management practices among farmers in the Wa East District. The study adopts both Poisson regression and negative binomial models to identify the determinants of adopting risk management practices. However, a statistical test for over dispersion indicates that the Poisson regression model suites the data best. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 200 farm households selected through a multi-stage sampling process. The results revealed that farmers in the Wa East District are characterized by low level of formal education, operating under small scale and lack specialization. Many farm enterprises are kept by a farmer as a way of avoiding production and marketing risk. Farmers were observed to have been practicing many risk management tools with low concentration on financial risk tools. Many variables were hypothesized to have influence on the intensity of adoption but are not found significant. The significant variables include level of education, production capacity and access to services. Therefore, stakeholders interested in marketing agriculture in the Wa East District through promotion should include among their incentives ways of enhancing farmer adoption of risk management practices. Specific concentration should be on provision of credit and extension services to farmers. Farmers with some level of formal education, many farm enterprises and larger farm sizes are adopters of the intensity of risk mitigation measures. Any policy set to promote better farming practices to avoid risk should not fail to include these categories of farmers. Keywords: Adoption of Risk management practices, Wa East District, Poisson Regression, Negative Binomial Distribution, Farmer

The Correlation between Risk Management and Organizational Performance: An Empirical Investigation using Panel Data

The study analyzes risk management and organizational performance in deposit money banks in Nigeria. Two measures of organizational performance concentration are used. The first is the return on assets, while the second is return on equity. Determination of the relationship between risk management and organizational performance is done using panel data regression models. Explanatory variables, such as standard deviation of return on assets, standard deviation of return on revenue, current ratio, quick ratio, equity over total assets, equity over loan ratio, debt over equity and debt over total assets are used. Five hypotheses are tested and overall, organizational performance is positively affected by the risk management mechanisms of the bank and its liquidity policies. However, the relationship between financial leverage, size and age of the bank and financial performance is negative. The study concludes that risk and liquidity management policies are important to high financial performance. However, banks should put in place sound risk management mechanisms and policies to guide their operations. Also, banks should adhere strictly to sound liquidity management practices to guide against lack of liquidity. They should utilize earnings rather than seeking for external financing. Finally, banks should reduce their level of noncurrent assets and invest more in current assets in order to earn more profits from operations. Keywords: Risk management, organizational performance, deposit money banks, liquidity, financial leverage, size, age, Nigeri

Endoparasite infections and hygiene management in organic fattening herds

Introduction Studies in different European countries have revealed that infections with endoparasites are one of the most important health problems in swine herds (Roepstorff et al., 1999; Eijck & Borgsteede, 2005). In organic pig farming, the Regulation (EC) No 889/2008 includes several specifications which are expected to have severe impacts on parasite infection, i.e. straw bedding, access to outdoor run, addition of roughage to the daily feed ration and no prophylactic anthelmintic medication. Organic pig farms are also characterised by heterogeneous management practices and a lack in control measures (Ebke & Sundrum, 2004; Werner et al., 2009) providing a non-assessable risk for helminth egg contamination in the environment. The aim of the study was to assess the prevalence of endoparasite infections in fattening pigs on organic swine herds and the effectiveness of management measures with respect to the reduction of endoparasite infections. Materials and Methods The study was performed in 17 organic farrow-to-finish herds in Germany. An interview with the farmer was performed using a standardised questionnaire, containing closed and open-ended questions on anthelmintic treatment, cleaning and disinfectant measures, documentation of production and management data and diagnostic measures on farm-level. Furthermore, 10 faecal samples per farm, taken twice during spring and autumn, were collected from fatteners. They were examined within 12-24 h after collection for nematode egg counts per gram of faeces (EPG) using the 'Concentration McMaster technique' with saturated sodium chloride solution (detection limit: 20 EPG; Roepstorff & Nansen, 1999). A total number of 326 fatteners were sampled. Data were categorised to evaluate the relationship between hygiene management and parasite infection using the Fisher-Yates-Test. Results Fatteners were routinely treated with anthelmintics on 8 of the 17 farms. Anthelmintics most frequently used in fatteners were (pro)benzimidazoles (75%). Strongylid infections were detected in 58.8% of the herds with a mean within-farm prevalence of 30.3% (Tab. 1). Ascaris (A.) suum and Trichuris suis eggs were detected in 21 and 9.8% of faecal samples of fatteners, respectively. Coccidia infections were diagnosed in 88% of the farms. The hygiene management showed a high variation between the farms (Fig. 1). Only half of the farmers performed wet cleaning in their fattening units (n=8), whereas two farmers did not clean the stables at all. 15 of the total number of 17 farmers made no use of chemical disinfectant measures versus endoparasites. However, no egg-shedding of A. suum and strongyles was detected in three of these 15 herds. Four additional herds were free of strongyles. Discussion Results show that farms varied to a high degree with respect to the prevalence of endoparasite infection and the implementation of hygiene measures. In contrast to expectancy, the prevalence rate of Ascaris suum infection was on a low level in comparison to other studies (Carstensen et al., 2002; Eijck & Borgsteede, 2005). No correlation was found between hygienic procedures and the occurrence of parasite infection, confirming previous results from Roepstorff et al. (1999). Thus, those farms who use comprehensive hygiene measures are not necessarily gaining the best results with respect to parasite infection. It is concluded that farm specific control and feedback mechanism are required to minimize both endoparasite infections and efforts to control them

Technical control of nanoparticle emissions from desktop 3D printing

Material extrusion (ME) desktop 3D printing is known to strongly emit nanoparticles (NP), and the need for risk management has been recognized widely. Four different engineering control measures were studied in real-life office conditions by means of online NP measurements and indoor aerosol modeling. The studied engineering control measures were general ventilation, local exhaust ventilation (LEV), retrofitted enclosure, and retrofitted enclosure with LEV. Efficiency between different control measures was compared based on particle number and surface area (SA) concentrations from which SA concentration was found to be more reliable. The study found out that for regular or long-time use of ME desktop 3D printers, the general ventilation is not sufficient control measure for NP emissions. Also, the LEV with canopy hood attached above the 3D printer did not control the emission remarkably and successful position of the hood in relation to the nozzle was found challenging. Retrofitted enclosure attached to the LEV reduced the NP emissions 96% based on SA concentration. Retrofitted enclosure is nearly as efficient as enclosure attached to the LEV (reduction of 89% based on SA concentration) but may be considered more practical solution than enclosure with LEV.Peer reviewe