It's fair to say that risk management as a buzz word has achieved a rare preponderance in management suites. But the word connotes so many things. In the financial service industry, much of the focus has been on credit risk and portfolio risk. But there are other kinds of risk.

The risk that most people think about when it comes to GRC (GRC news) is IT compliance risk and compliance risk around financial control processes. Operational risk, as defined by Basel II regulations, contemplates operational risk as the "risk of loss resulting from inadequate or failed internal processes, people and systems, or from external events."

There's obviously a lot of conceptual and actual overlap when it comes to GRC, operational risk and enterprise risk management at many companies, financial or otherwise. Chartis Research has noted a trend of consolidation among these functions, one it thinks will continue.

Chartis forecasts the worldwide financial services OpRisk and GRC technology market will grow to $2 billion by 2013 at a compound annual growth rate of 6.5 percent, according to its recent Operational Risk & GRC Software Solutions 2010 report. The technology market for OpRisk and GRC is still fragmented and selecting a system is still dependent on the specific needs, sophistication and geographical location of the buyer.

The key vendors include Algorithmics, Avanon, BPS Resolver, BWise, CorProfit, Interexa, MEGA, Methodware, OpenPages, Optial, Oracle, Protiviti, SAS and ARC Logics.

For more:
- here's an overview

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