Webinar The corona pandemic: an accelerator for behavioural risk?

Having state of the art technology or a ‘dream process’ in place does not guarantee that banks stay safe and compliant. Eventually, it is the human factor that makes the difference. It’s the people that can make the cumbersome process work, but at the same time, it’s also the people that can form a risk - even in a solid process. This type of risk is referred to as ‘behavioural risk’. But what happens if these people are under a lot of pressure, for instance during a crisis such as a pandemic?

The corona pandemic has fundamentally changed the way we work, blurring the lines between our office and home lives more than ever. Plans to de-densify workplaces in support of physical distancing increase behavioural risks in many different ways. Ranging from hampered psychological safety to a decrease in connection and trust, impacting productivity but also physical and mental wellbeing.

Thanks to the high attendance and lively debate, it was concluded that the current situation impacts our daily routines, our work-life balance, and our contact with colleagues. People feel less connected, they long for face-to-face interaction, are more tired due to lack of non-verbal cues during communication and are facing higher work pressure.

It is decisive that we recognise and effectively mitigate the inherent behavioural risks and their drivers in this new situation in a timely manner. For instance, physical and psychological distancing increase behavioural risks in many different ways. Ranging from hampered psychological safety to a decrease in connection and trust, impacting productivity, affecting decisions taken and also disturbing physical and mental well-being.

Speakers

Mirea Raaijmakers (lecturer)

Mirea Raaijmakers was born in 1974. She is married, has two children and lives with her family in Amsterdam.

She studied psychology and received her PhD in 2008. Mirea joined ING in 2017 and was appointed as Global Head Behavioural Risk on the 1st of August 2018. Prior to ING, she worked for the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) where she developed and executed the supervision on Behaviour & Culture. She was the first psychologist ever appointed by a central bank in supervision to use her specific skillset in supervision. Before DNB she worked as an organizational consultant at consultancy firms as well as the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration.

Mirea’s core competencies are understanding and influencing the behaviour of individuals, groups and organizations, especially during complex and large scale changes. She is the main architect of the supervision of Behaviour & Culture. Globally DNB’s supervision of Behaviour & Culture is known as one of the most successful post-financial crisis innovations in supervision. Next to the design and development of this new type of supervision Mirea has always been in the lead of executing behaviour & culture inspections. She understands from the inside why and how this innovation works.

Willem Verschoor (moderator)

Prof. dr. Willem Verschoor is Professor of Finance and Director of the School of Business and Economics Executive Education in Finance. He is also a Research Fellow of the Tinbergen Institute. Willem has broad knowledge and wide-ranging experience in the financial sector and the university community, as a senior executive, an advisor and as a supervisor. His experience in the financial sector involves asset management firms, corporate finance advisory, investment banks, and their research units.

Webinar The corona pandemic: an accelerator for behavioural risk?

This Webinar took place on 17 February 2021