C-suite

Driven by greater demands to help meet business goals, these CIOs share some of the tactics that have helped them win friends and allies in other departments and move big projects forward.

Security and online and mobile banking rose to the top of bank CIOs' priority lists this year, according to a proprietary survey by American Banker and SourceMedia Research.

A survey of 50 bank CIOs conducted by American Banker found CIOs' daily lives are still dominated by the need for state-of-the-art customer-facing technology, security concerns and concerns around business strategy and revenue growth.

While hiring a chief risk officer is a given at the big banks, smaller institutions must weigh several factors and options in determining the risk leadership model that works for them.

On top of dealing with cyber threats and other potential dangers to banks, CROs are deeply involved these days in discussions over investing in new products and business lines.

Cyber threats or fraud may present bigger direct risks to banks, but many chief risk officers spend enormous amounts of time on the more tangible concern of keeping up with ever-growing regulatory expectations and requirements.

A role many people did not understand less than a decade ago has become integral to how banks navigate a new set of postcrisis hazards.

The financial crisis and its aftermath elevated the stature of CROs. The true test of their new clout will come during the next market expansion.

American Banker Research conducted a detailed online survey of 49 risk management executives from our readership as part of the inaugural C-Suite Series. The respondents included risk managers from banks with over $10 billion in assets all the way down to institutions with less than $100 million in assets. Questions covered topics from where risk officers devote the most attention to what roles they see themselves taking on next. The survey reveals executives' significant focus on regulatory risk and that boards are being responsive to concerns raised by chief risk officers. Here are highlights from the research.

Enterprise risk management is an area banks are trying to master, and the appointment of a chief risk officer to oversee this effort has become common, even among community banks. We asked CROs and other experts for their perspectives on this evolving role, the skills needed to do the job well and their biggest worries.