Open questions in modelling operational risk in the Basel accords: The loss threshold and the severity distribution

Abstract

Quantifying capital requirements for operational risk under the Basel Accords remains an open issue in banking practice. In this paper, the impact upon the economic capital of two critical elements when applying advanced approaches (AMA) in the modelling of operational risk, namely, the threshold, and the loss distribution of severity, is analyzed by using a loss database of a Spanish savings bank. This study demonstrates the importance of finding a methodological way to render the various operational risk profiles of financial entities comparable.