Risk Management in a Transition Economy: The Chilean Case

Abstract

Over the last decade, the Chilean economy has experienced rapid growth, allowing per capita GDP to rise from $10,700 to $19,887. Additionally, the capital markets size increased over 16%. Given this, it is expected that Chile will be considered a developed country by 2020, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Chile is in the initial stages of joining the OECD; a process that is expected to accelerate positive changes in the economy. However, in recent years, publicly traded Chilean firms began to face financial scandals causing the upheaval of the regulatory market structures and initiating environmental legislation. These scandals have consistently occurred across all economic sectors and typically have included companies with large market capitalizations and strong risk management procedures. Nevertheless, these mechanisms have proven unsuccessful due to misinformation or information manipulation. The changes to the Chilean economy can be considered as operational risk to its member firms. These risks typically result from inadequate or failed internal processes or people systems, and/or from external events. The radical changes in this transitional economy and the impact on the differing companies involved are good examples that should provide a warning for emerging market economies trying to implement risk management control systems. Unfortunately, agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the United States cannot be modeled in the traditional sense in countries similar to Chile. Different authors simplified operational risk management, but this framework is not feasible in emerging economies based solely on the criteria of identification, evaluation, monitoring, and management.