Risk tackler

IT'S not often that you meet a chief executive so open in chastising his own industry, one in which he rose through the ranks. And yet, listening to Bill Winters, chief executive of Standard Chartered (StanChart), it is plain that beneath his criticism of bad practices are some solid insights on risk in banking. It also explains why he was picked, two years ago, to run a bank that had lost its way with its high-risk businesses, and is being steered back on course.

"In some ways, it's easy to tell when you've got a bad risk culture," Mr Winters tells The Business Times during a recent visit to Singapore. "An unhealthy risk culture is one where the frontline sees it as its job j…