The financial crisis of 2008 did more than expose weaknesses in the capital reserves and liquidity risk management of financial institutions. It also revealed profound weaknesses in many financial institutions' three lines of defense: business operations, risk management controls and independent assurance.
Financial institutions rely on these to protect against risk; each of these lines had many questions to answer. First and foremost: What failed? On close examination, failure in each line of defense bears some responsibility for the crisis.
To assess the state of risk management following the financial crisis, The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) conducted a survey sponsored by Protiviti of 350 senior-level executives at financial institutions across the globe.