Shedding Light on Non-Financial Risks – a European Survey

Shedding Light on Non-Financial Risks – a European Survey — January 2012

Executive Summary

fail; it put the question of international cooperation and rules harmonisation on centre stage. Restitution may be rendered impossible, at least under reasonable delays, in such extreme cases as the default of an institution — reputable as it might have been. Respondents are firstly in favour of a clarification of the perimeter of responsibilities, which is in line with recent proposals put forward by the ESMA (2011a and 2011b), as well as in the response to the ESMA’s consultation by the European Trustee and Depositary Forum (ETDF, 2011): a strong majority of

inappropriate or misleading information. So, distributors have a major role to play, not only to be transparent themselves but also to request transparency from their providers, which is in line with Amenc and Sender (2010b). Due to the Madoff affair, restitution is possibly the non-financial risk to have gained the most visibility in recent years. Depositaries are entrusted with the safe- keeping of assets, and are usually assumed responsible for the restitution of the assets that they hold under custody. The collapse of Lehman not only showed the world that a systemically large institution could

Figure 6: How much do you agree with the following assertions regarding regulations on the restitution of assets?

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An EDHEC-Risk Institute Publication