The role of operational risk in the 2007/2008 financial crisis is explored. The factors that gave rise to the crisis are examined and it is found that although the event is largely regarded as a credit crisis, operational risk factors played a significant role in fuelling its duration and severity. It is concluded that, from an operational risk perspective, 2008 was the worst on record. Considering the extensive role of operational risk in global financial calamities, suggestions are made to improve the management of this risk type.

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Universities are academic institutions with the primary objectives of teaching students a particular academic discipline and for conducting research related to that discipline. Traditionally, very little collaboration existed between universities and industry with respect to training and research in the mathematical sciences. Because of funding pressure, more and more universities are forced to find external sources of income. In this paper, we discuss a framework for designing and implementing career-oriented training programmes and industry-directed research programmes with a statistical science core. This framework was used as the basis for designing and implementing a highly successful training and research programme at North-West University’s Centre for Business Mathematics and Informatics® (Centre for BMI), with the active support of industry partners Absa and SAS Institute. We believe that the lessons learnt from its implementation could form valuable guidelines for other, similar initiatives.