How would you characterize your overall willingness to take risk?Is this a strategic choice or a necessity born of the nature of the business/industry?

How do you compare with your competitors when it comes to risk-taking? Do you see yourself as more or less aggressive?

Where have you found your successes—and met your failures?

Are there specific types of risks that you won’t take?Things that you won’t do?

Are there areas on which you will focus your risk-taking?Where would you allow greater latitude?

Are there any regulatory or compliance expectations that would establish maximum risk-taking or no-go zones?

How will you be viewed by external parties and investors?Do they hold expectations regarding the broad risk-taking of the firm?

Do you have a target credit rating?Do you have a credit rating today—and are you satisfied with it? Is it too high, or too low, to be a long-term target?

Do you have peers or competitors with credit ratings that could serve as benchmarks?

Have you established a maximum sustainable loss?Do you understand what that implies regarding your current operating environment and strategic expectations?

Have you calculated economic capital for each of your risks?The company as a whole? How does this stack up against your current available capital? Your strategic initiatives? What sort of capital consumption do they imply? Have you considered the variance in those expectations and how this would impact your capital levels?

Have you considered each of your core risks quantitatively?Do you hold an economic capital view of them? Can you make a strong qualitative statement about how far you will stretch your core risks?

Have you set up limits for each risk and across each department?

Have you analyzed your yearly forecast to consider expected return for the risks you have identified?How does this stack up against your expectations? Your investors’ expectations? Do you have a target in mind? Can you apply that target as a hurdle rate?