While a certain level of “transaction testing” remains important to ensure that internal systems work and that controls are real, we can no longer take comfort in the safety of large, complex banks by independently assessing their overall condition at a specific point in time. Given the financial products on the market today, risk profiles of complex institutions can change too easily and quickly.
We need the assurance that the practices that have kept an institution sound so far are likely to keep it sound in the foreseeable future. US bank managers had earlier come to the same conclusion regarding their own abilities to control individual transactions and positions in their worldwide operations.