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Financial forum 2: Importance of risk models highlighted by crisis     (Copyright Thompson’s World Insurance News     Not to be redistributed by individual recipients.)     There are lessons insurers can learn from the most recent and ongoing financial crisis when looking at their capital management regimes and models, said the chief risk officer for ACE Canada     Shawn Doherty noted that capital supports the balance sheet risks, current operations and growth and acquisitions.     “The key issue we face every day is managing it effectively. The lessons we see coming out of the financial crisis so far is dealing with the ongoing nature of it with the problems in Europe.     “There’s a lot of concern as governments start pulling out their support to the various economies around the world and will the private sector step back in?     “Will we see some growth?”     He said anytime there is a crisis like this it presents an opportunity for surviving companies to look back and check the reliability of their models.     “Risk modelling is becoming more and more important .     “Statistician George Box said: ‘Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.’     “You really need to look at your knowledge of modelling limitations so you can apply commonsense, business intuition, and practical knowledge to the model output,” Mr. Doherty said.     More in our May 31, 2010 edition        Thompson’s World Insurance News P.O. Box 1027,  Waterloo, Ontario,  Canada  N2J 4S1 Tel: 519-579-2500 Fax: 519-745-7321 mpub@sympatico.ca THOMPSON’S WORLD INSURANCE NEWS , Canada’s only independent weekly for p&c insurance professionals, has been the industry’s most trusted news source since 1988.