Bear Stearns ramping up risk controls

Bear Stearns is planning to tighten risk controls at its asset management division following recent heavy losses incurred by two of its hedge funds, says a report in US newspaper the Wall Street Journal.

The hedge funds suffered severely as a direct result of the subprime meltdown in the US and the bank hopes the move will help avoid similar situations developing in future.

To centralise control of the unit and bring it under the closer scrutiny of the bank, a number of new measures will be introduced, the foremost of these will be making the unit report to the Michael Alix, chief risk officer at Bear Stearns, rather than the chairman and chief executive of the division. The number of risk managers at the unit is also to be increased, said the WSJ.