Risk Appetite

Risk appetite denotes the amount, rate or percentage of risk an individual, or organization (foreseen by the Board of Directors or management) is willing to accept in return for its plan, objectives and innovation. It varies between person to person or from entity to entity.

This concept depends on various factors like risk tolerance, financial stability, and the vision and mission of the organization. The rules and bylaws also play an important role. However, it may change over time depending on the market conditions and the growth and expansion of the entity. It influences the decision-making process and overall management efficiency level.

• Risk appetite refers to the degree of risk an individual or organization is willing to accept or tolerate while pursuing its objectives. It represents their readiness to embrace uncertainty and potential losses in exchange for potential gains.
• Various factors influence risk appetite, including an organization's objectives, risk tolerance, financial capacity, industry norms, regulatory requirements, and stakeholder expectations.
• A clear risk appetite is essential to guide decision-making and risk management processes. It sets boundaries and offers a framework for effectively assessing and responding to risks.

The risk appetite framework refers to the level and extent of risk that an individual or an organization can absorb at a given point in time. It depends on the financial stability, management efficiency, skill, knowledge, the type of market and customer base, competition level, etc. Assessement of this concept helps organizations make informed decisions regarding investment strategies and growth.

Eventually, a broad exercise in risk management could entail managing the risks involved in a particular project, objective, or action. Now it becomes the responsibility of the Board of Directors, Strategic Committee, or any such authority capable of deciding whether to accept such a proposition considering the risk and returns offered. If yes, then to what extent?

As per the ISO 31000, a risk management standard defines risk appetite as “Amount and type of risk that an organization is prepared to pursue, retain or take.” Every business or an individual has some aspirations, and to fulfill that strategic plans or objectives are foreseen. To apply these plans, and due to the uncertainties involved, multiple risks and a high risk appetite are associated too. To avail of the stated purpose, one has to do the cost-benefit analysis and come to a point where the risk assumed is worth taking.

A suitable example will help us understand the concept.

Let’s assume an organization is expecting to expand in a different country. The present net worth of the organization is close to $800 million. The entity could bear the risks until the bar of $400 million, but as decided by the management, the degree of risk accepted by the company should not exceed $240 million. Thus the entity has been set to 30% of the net worth, and no business heads are allowed to decide on a story that impacts the business more than its stated level.

It could vary in different scenarios or entities. Broadly, the risk accepting abilities are the following:

• Some organization are risk-averse or always plays in a safe zone in certain areas of business. For instance, big MNCs mostly doesn't show any risk appetite statement for reputational loss.
• Another option would be acceptance of risk but in a range of minimal to exemplary, where the management decides a point giving the best risk-reward ratio.
• In this option, the management tries all the options which could offer the most successful results and fall in the criteria of value to the organization.
• It is quite rare but could be seen in the business environment, where irrespective of the degree of risk, the management assents to a project or an objective promising a healthy return.

Sometimes people confuse it with risk management. The risk appetite statement is a borderline below which the management is ready to pursue or continue its stated goals. But, even deciding the organization's appetite towards the risks involved, a fair and robust risk management activities need to be in place. After a thorough understanding of the expected low or a high risk appetite from all the corners, a line could be drawn to support the acceptable level. So, risk acceptance comes later to the risk management routine.

Though the Board of Directors is responsible for shaping the decisions of the company, forming and preparing the risk appetite documents is the primary responsibility of the management. Managers of the various domains in the entity do an exercise to understand the risk levels and then pen it down and present it to the Board for consideration. Then, the Board decides upon the given proposal whether it reflects the real picture of the risks or not, and to take a stand on it.

For evaluating the risks, the management needs to consider and ponder upon a few questions, such as what could be the significant risks faced by the organization, the risk-taking abilities of the entity, providing ranks to the dangers based on rewards offered, and doing qualitative analysis to arrive at the numbers, if any.

After the exercise mentioned above, the details are sent for approval to the top management who, after doing an elaborate discussion and pondering, approves it and allows it to become the written policy of the entity as its risk appetite.

Just as every financial concept has its own importance and limitations, so does this concept. Let us first try to understand the importance of it is details.

• It is the fundamental step in arriving at the overall risk or risk management for the organization. After understanding the risk appetite framework, or doing the analysis of the uncertainties of the project, expansion, or objective, an organization is in better shape to draw its risk tolerance and risk management policies.
• If an organization is not aware of its risk accepting capabilities, then It would not be able to either maximize the return or curtail the excessive losses. So, to remain efficient in the risk-reward relationship, Risk appetite needs to be calculated beforehand.

• After defining the appetite for risk or risk acceptance, an organization could create a balance between its innovation and cautionary policies. If the stated risk is in the range of entities accepted levels, then there is no need to spend further in risk reduction methodologies. If the present trouble is considerably lower than the stated or assumed risk, an organization could increase its thrust on additional innovation or extend its objectives until the risk accepted limit is reached.
• Apart from the benefits or advantages mentioned above, the exact expression of risk acceptance level of an entity provides other benefits too, such as allowing the Board or the management to pursue more decision to enhance its rewards, feasible fund allocation to a particular project for additional benefits, enhancement of transparency in the eyes of customers, investors, rating agencies, and such other parties.

Along with the importance it is also necessary to understand the limitations of the above concept. The following points will explain them in details.

• It is a subjective idea and varies with situations. There is no fixed rule, criteria, formula or circumstance to assess this level.
• It is often expressed in qualitative terms, like moderate or aggressive, which is challenging. Moreover, it needs to be clarified in the decision-making process.
• Risk appetite levels are not a static process. It keeps on changing with change in market conditions or conditions of the entity. The decision making or policies do not always change at the same pace. This often disturbes the alignment and lead to mismatch between the strategies implements and actual achievement of objectives.
• Since an entity will have many types of stakeholders at different levels and departments, the risk appetite will also vary. This will create mismanagement and lack of coordination between strategic decision and implementation of the same.

However, inspite of having some limitations, it is still a very useful tool that can be used to guide the management in order to align the operation with the objectives.

• In general parlance risk appetite levels and Risk Tolerance is used interchangeably, but these terms have a different meaning. Risk Appetite denotes the amount, rate, or percentage of risk an individual or an organization requires to bear to move ahead with its plans or objectives. The threats come as part and parcel with the entity’s aspirations and need to be accepted by the management to proceed forward.
• On the other hand, risk tolerance is when the investor or the organization would remain comfortable despite taking losses or bearing uncertainties. The endurance of risk depends upon many factors such as financial expectation, strength, age, earning capacity, etc. One of the popular methods to assess the risk tolerance level of an organization or individual is to design a questionnaire and get it filled out by them.

This has been a guide to Risk Appetite and its meaning. We explain its differences with risk tolerance, examples, types, importance & how to determine. You may learn more about financing from the following articles -

• Risk Analysis
• Risk Transfer
• Risk Reversal
• Investment Risk