Risk mitigation has its downsides too

With all that has happened since 2007, companies have less tolerance for risk than at any time in recent memory. Most companies have taken huge strides in de-risking their financial and treasury functions. From de-leveraging their balance sheets to reduce credit risk, to reducing the number of banking relationships to counteract counterparty risk, to stress testing their systems to abstraction to get a handle on operational risk, companies feel they are now in a position to face whatever the world can throw at them.

“Our perception of risk has fundamentally changed in the last three years,” said Peter Van Rood, corporate treasury director at Akzo Nobel. “There has been a shift in focus by...