Residual Risk

Residual risk also known as inherent risk is the amount of risk that still pertains after all the risks have been calculated, to put it in simple words this is the risk that is not eliminated by the management at first and the exposure that remains after all the known risks have been eliminated or factored in.

This kind of risk can be formally avoided by transferring it to a third-party insurance company. In cases where no insurance is taken against such risks, the Company usually accepts it as a risk to the business. It creates a contingency reserve to manage these risks. Thus, the Company either transfers or accepts residual risk as a part of the going business.

• Residual risk refers to the level of risk that persists after implementing risk mitigation measures.
• It acknowledges the inherent uncertainty and potential negative impact that cannot be entirely eliminated through risk management efforts alone.
• Residual risk is an inherent part of any activity or decision-making process. Despite proactive risk management practices, it is impossible to eliminate all potential risks entirely. Recognizing residual risk allows organizations to be aware of the remaining uncertainties and prepare appropriate risk response strategies.
• Residual risk is important to consider because it represents the potential for adverse outcomes that may arise despite implementing risk controls. 

The residual risk assessment are the leftover risks that remain after all the unknown risks have been factored in, countered, or mitigated. They can also be thought of as the risks that remain after a planned risk framework, and relevant risk controls are put in place. Subtracting the impact of risk controls from the inherent risk in the business (i.e., the risk without any risk controls) is used to calculate residual risk.

It is the amount of risk that remains in the process after all the risks have been calculated, accounted, and hedged. During an investment or a business process, there are a lot of risks involved, and the entity takes into consideration all such risks. It counters factors in or eliminates all the known risks of the process. The risks that remain in the process may be due to unknown factors or such risks due to known factors that cannot be hedged or countered; such risks are called residual risks.

Simply put, the danger to a business that remains after all the identified risks have been eliminated or mitigated through the Company’s efforts or internal and risk controls.

The general formula to calculate and do the residual risk assessment is:

In the above residual risk formula

• Inherent risk is the amount of risk that exists in the absence of controls or other mitigating factors that are not in place. It is also known as the risk before controls or gross risk.

• The impact of risk controls is the amount of risk eliminated, mitigated, or hedged by taking internal or external risk controls.

Thus, when the impact of risk controls is subtracted from the inherent risk, the residual amount that remains is this risk.

Let us look at an example to understand the concept identify how the residual risk rating is done.

Example #1

As a residual risk example, you can consider the car seat belts. Initially, without seatbelts, there were a lot of deaths and injuries due to accidents. After the seat belts were installed in the cars and made mandatory to wear by the law, there was a significant reduction in deaths and injuries. However, there are still injuries and deaths by the accidents even after the driver wears these seat belts; this could be said as a residual risk. The seat belts have been successful in mitigating the risk, but some risk is still left, which is not captured; that is why there are deaths by accident.

Example #2

Let us look at residual risk examples so that we can find out what the residual risk could be for an organization (in terms of potential loss). Consider the firm which has recently taken up a new project.

Without any risk controls, the firm could lose $ 500 million. However, the firm prepares and follows risk governance guidelines and takes necessary steps to calculate residual risk and mitigate some of the known risks. After taking the internal controls, the firm has calculated the impact of risk controls as $ 400 million. This impact can be said as the amount of risk loss reduced by taking control measures.

• Now, inherent risk = $ 500 million
• Impact of risk controls = $ 400 million
• Thus, residual risk = inherent risk – impact of risk controls = 500 – 400 = $ 100 million

Companies deal with risk in four ways. While the Company tries to mitigate risks in any of these ways, there is some amount of these risks generated. These four ways are described in detail with examples and how residual risk rating is done:

#1 - Avoid the Risk

Companies may decide not to take on the project or investment to avoid the inherent risk in the project. A Company may decide not to take a project to develop technology because of the new risks the Company may be exposed to. However, in avoiding such risks, the Company may be exposed to the risk of the competitor firm developing such a technology. The Company may lose its clients and business and may pose the threat of being less competitive after the Competitor firm develops the new technology. Thus, avoiding some risks may expose the Company to a different residual risk.

#2 - Risk Reduction

Companies perform a lot of checks and balances in reducing risk. However, such a risk reduction practice may expose the Company to residual risk in the process itself. Consider a production and manufacturing company that has the list of procedures to be performed in the manufacturing line, which checks the risks involved at each stage of the process. However, human or manual errors expose the Company to such risk, which may not be mitigated easily.

#3 - Risk Transfer

Most of the Companies and individuals buy insurance plans from insurance Companies to transfer any kinds of risks to the third party. While buying an insurance plan is the basic tool to mitigate all types of risks, it too has some amount of residual risks. Suppose a Company buys an insurance scheme on a fire-related disaster. However, the Insurance Company refuses to pay the damage, or the insurance company goes bankrupt due to the high number of claims for other reasons. Thus, risk transfer did not work as was expected while buying the insurance plan.

#4 - Risk Acceptance

After taking all the necessary steps as mentioned above, the investor may be bound to accept a certain amount of risk. This is called risk acceptance, where the investor may neither be able to identify the risk nor can mitigate or transfer the risk but will have to accept it. Also, he will have to pay or incur losses if the risk materializes into losses. Such a risk acceptance is generally in the case of residual risks, or we can say that the risk which is accepted by the investor after taking all the necessary steps is the residual risk.

While risk transfer and risk acceptance are the two methods to counter such risk, however, the organizations must follow additional steps as below:

The main importance of the calculating residual risk lies in the fact that it is able to identify the efficiency level of the risk management efforts that organizations use. Let us identify them in the form of the points given below:

• It helps to monitor and evaluate how effectively the management of the entity is able to control and mitigate the risks.
• It helps to identify areas that need immediate improvement and supervision.
• The residual risk level helps in improving the decision making process and resource allocation, by directing the resources towards areas where they are actually needed.
• Due to improvement in the operation system, the stakeholders have greater faith and confidence in the entity.
• It show that the company management is committed towards the betterment of the process and taking necessary steps towards it.
• Calculating residual risk lead to compliance with various rules and bylaws of the business, which may also be legal requirements.

The above are the two different two of concepts in the risk analysis and management context. Let us identify the difference between them.

• The former refers to the risk that remains in the system afer all the mitigation and control strategies have already been implemented whereas the latter refers to the risk that will continue to exist in the process without taking into account any kind of control or mitigation efforts.
• The residual risk level shows how effective the risk management strategies of the systems are whereas the latter shows how risk a particular investment, activity or system is.
• The former helps in identifying any further step that should be taken to control risk but the latter is based on the inherent nature of the risk itself.

Thus, the above are some of the important differences between the two types of risks.

This has been a guide to Residual Risk and its meaning. We explain its differences with inherent risk with example, formula, importance & how to manage it. You may learn more about Risk Management from the following articles –

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