European insurance companies and regulators are preparing for the 2010 implementation of Solvency II, a riskbased capital accord that shares many similarities with Basel II. Dr. Marco Folpmers and Sjaak Bouma discuss the current state of capital frameworks in the insurance industry, compare and contrast Solvency II and Basel II ... click here for more details.

Overview of articles in this issue.

Todd Petzel reviews the September 2006 blow-up of hedge fund Amaranth Advisors.

What are the building blocks of an economic capital framework and how can a financial services firm use techniques such as standard deviation of loss and joint default probability to measure and manage a portfolio of credit-risky assets? Peter-Paul Hoogbruin offers a detailed economic capital example.

Dr. Felixberto Bustos and Maria Amora C. Manabat summarize the issues discussed at the recent GARP Philippines chapter meeting and provide an overview of the risk management challenges facing the country’s energy industry.

Driven by recent political and regulatory changes, compliance departments now have more decision-making flexibility. But with this new freedom comes greater risk management responsibility. Kevin Ludwick and Lindsay Thomas examine the evolution of compliance in the UK and US from a risk perspective.

Arthur O`Connor reviews "The Handbook of Integrated Risk Management for E-Business" (edited by Abderrahim Labbi).

What is the difference between risk and uncertainty? Can uncertainty be incorporated into the valuations process of an option pricing model? What challenges does this task present, and what is the best approach for robust option pricing? Professor Mark Salmon and Dr. Stephen Weston discuss the problems posed by uncertainty ... click here for more details.

While many US mortgage owners are feeling the weight of the subprime-driven credit crisis, consumers in Western Europe are now inhibited by penalties tied to prepayment of mortgage loans. Dr. Marco Folpmers identifies the barriers to prepayment of mortgage loans, outlines an optimal prepayment strategy for callable mortgage loans and ... click here for more details.