Andrew Waxman

Financial institutions can improve monitoring of suspicious activity and potentially risky customers using algorithms, but they need to treat this new technology with caution.

Financial institutions can begin to reduce the number of rogue employees and put a stop to bad behavior.

Banks should ensure that their employees are nimble enough to react when unexpected situations arise, just as many had to do during the 2008 crisis.

It can be hard for bankers to carve out opportunities to tackle complex problems in today’s always-on culture, but it’s important for getting ahead.

The work of the famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman provides insights into how bankers can make better business decisions around cryptocurrency and other investments.

The work of the famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman provides insights into how bankers can make better business decisions around cryptocurrency and other investments.

There’s growing evidence that the greatest progress and most effective decision-making are not the products of a single charismatic leader or pair of leaders, but of a collaborative culture. Banks could benefit from adopting this mindset.

Alternative data can be beneficial for individuals locked out of the financial system’s more conventional data types, but such data is open to manipulation or biased interpretation.

Unlike a visiting sports team, foreign banks can't just blame local referees they perceive as biased for penalties or fines.

Using historical patterns to predict the next financial success or crisis seems rational. But beware the human psyche’s tendency to concoct order out of randomness.

With a heavy focus on the granular details of compliance, bankers and regulators might miss the big picture — not unlike New York City’s approach to fighting crime in the 1990s.

The world is divided into those who pursue popular decisions that are more likely to fail and those who go against the crowd and end up having the last laugh.

Narcissistic biases can lead us to favor those who look like us or have similar backgrounds or other common bonds. This inevitably affects the quality of hiring and risk management decisions.

In a world where confidence is rewarded more than indecision, businesses risk elevating confident leaders who overestimate their abilities. In banking, that can have harmful effects.

Firms need to evaluate risks ranging from hackers spreading false information about the bank to an executive’s inappropriate social media posts.

Illegal methods of moving money are just as likely to be low-tech and old school as high-tech and sophisticated. Surveillance methods and processes need to be able to counter both.

For all of the sophisticated ways criminals might try to launder money, banks still need to defend against low-tech methods that aren’t easy to track.

Institutions should define data "liabilities" and "assets" and represent them in a way that both touts data successes and is transparent about data gaps.

Using methods akin to fighting external hacking can also address risks of employees committing legal or ethical lapses.

A mature governance framework and risk culture that reaches all employees are among the attributes of a high-functioning "risk organization."