• Managing risk for Australian banks
• Our capabilities

Identifying and calculating risk is a core part of financial institutions' business. Banks, insurance providers and underwriters have to take account of operational, credit and market risk as part of their everyday operations.

As an independent, science-based organisation with extensive mathematical expertise and financial knowledge, CSIRO is in an excellent position to assist the Australian financial industry with high quality risk management.

Our unique technologies and risk-pricing approaches have been developed over 10 years of research and development. They are supported by in-depth mathematical expertise in statistics, applied mathematical analysis and IT.

Managing risk for Australian Banks

Since the global financial crisis, financial risk is even more at the forefront of people’s minds, and banks in particular have been in the spotlight to improve their risk management practices.

Banks must comply with various regulations, for example the Basell II accord – an international standard that regulators use to determine how much capital banks need to protect themselves against the financial and operational risks they face. CSIRO can validate banks’ own risk models, delivering not just compliance with international regulations but a competitive advantage.

CSIRO provides independent risk analysis to help financial institutions ensure their risk management practices are of the highest standard.

For example, CSIRO developed a mathematical model to accurately quantify the risk for margin lending – where a customer borrows money to invest in shares and other financial products.

CSIRO also develops tools and software for pricing complex financial products. Our Reditus™ software is an innovative tool for pricing exotic options. It is used on a daily basis by a large number of global financial institutions.

Our capabilities

CSIRO’s key capabilities in financial services include:

• modelling operational, credit and market risk
• operations research
• pricing exotic options
• estimating and valuing rare events
• independent review and advice on risk models
• real-option valuation of investment in power generation and agribusiness
• data mining.

Find out more about our work in financial services:

Read more about CSIRO's work in Government and Commercial Services.