Enterprise risk management can be a particularly operational, nitty-gritty effort at credit unions. So what role should be played by the credit union board of directors, charged with looking at the credit union strategically?

First, the board is, to a great extent, responsible for articulating the mission and brand of the CU—its personality, if you will. So it is uniquely qualified to evaluate the CU’s “risk appetite,” an essential part of any enterprise risk management program.

“A risk appetite essentially defines how much risk an organization wants to tolerate,” explains CUES member Kelly McDonough, presid…