Deloitte writes and compiles a regular stream of content and timely features on risk, cyber, regulatory, and compliance matters—research, topical digests, perspectives, insights, and technical analysis—which appear in a separate module of Risk & Compliance Journal, an online publication from The Wall Street Journal.

A global view of risk committees

Boards of directors have been working hard to fulfill their risk oversight responsibilities in a challenging environment. Regulations are changing rapidly in most industries, and vary significantly across countries. Investors, analysts, and the public are demanding greater transparency into risk and risk management, as are creditors, counterparties, and other stakeholders. Many boards legitimately wonder not only what regulators want, but also which approaches to risk oversight actually work.

If you asked CFOs to list the major uncertainties they’ve grappled with over the past couple of years, you might get consensus on risks such as the economy, regulation, commodity pricing, and consumer demand. But, you would probably get little agreement on how they’ve factored such risks into their financial forecasts and planning.

Part of the problem is that financial planning and analysis has not changed fundamentally from the way it was done 10 years ago, despite the onslaught of new and more-strategic risks. Moreover, there still appears to be very little process integration across risk management, strategic planning, financial forecasting, and budgeting – integration often considered vital to addressing the speed and range of risks many companies face.

In this issue of CFO Insights, we discuss what still needs to be fixed in the financial planning and analysis process and introduce an analytical framework – risk-adjusted forecasting – that seeks to tame the uncertainties in that process. Read more.

The world and the environment in which decisions are made are experiencing profound transformations. Consequently, new risks appear, old ones are changing - and the ability to cleverly understand and manage risks will be crucial.

Thus, one year after the last governance, risk management & compliance edition of Inside, this first issue of 2015 points out key topics in these areas. It focuses on the roles and challenges of Boards of Directors, Board Committees, Chief Risk Officers, Chief Information Security Officers, Chief Compliance Officers and Chief Internal Auditors. We hope you will find this publication insightful.