The objective of this research is to understand what risk management processes are currently in place amongst active European equity asset managers, and to determine which practises are most effective. The focus of this research is on active equity portfolios within the European markets. The thesis is divided in five chapters: 1) Introduction, 2) Introduction and literature of risk management in financial institutions, 3) How risk management is currently used in European funds; a survey of 200 asset managers and hedge funds is undertaken to identify current approaches to risk management, and identify what might need to be improved, chapter, 4) using a unique survey, a comprehensive analysis of the level of risk that pension fund clients (Board Members, Chief Financial Officers, and upper management of organisations with pension funds under third-party management), family offices that invest in hedge funds and Intermediate Financial Advisors (IFAs in UK) are willing to accept, and 5) Conclusions. This will cover the financial crisis and the on-going subsequent recovery. The key findings from Chapter 2 are that there is limited literature in this subject, from Chapter 3 that there is significant issues within the risk management systems utilized by the various asset managers and that there is a need to improve considerably these systems and from Chapter 4 using a unique survey we gather a comprehensive analysis of the level of risk that pension fund clients (Board Members, Chief Financial Officers, and upper management of organisations with pension funds under third-party management), family offices that invest in hedge funds and Intermediate Financial Advisors (IFAs in UK) are willing to accept.\ud
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To the best of our knowledge, this is the first comprehensive study of current risk management practices within active European equity asset managers