The illusion of control: Why modern risk management means letting go
A recent upgrade at one of Europe’s largest banks offers a rare, inside view of how risk is managed in practice. Elenjical Solutions’ FinTech expert, Robert Cronje sheds light on what effective risk management really looks like when systems shift, and the stakes are high
In modern finance, risk is something to be monitored, measured, and reported with precision. Every system upgrade, every regulatory dashboard, every recalibration of an internal model is designed to reinforce the sense that risk is being tamed — that with the right technology and enough oversight, control is not just possible but promised. But step inside a real-world system change, and that illusion begins to break down.
Earlier this year, one of Spain’s largest banks attempted a major upgrade of its Murex platform — the critical infrastructure underpinning its trading operations, risk calculations, and reporting capabilities. The upgrade saw the bank jump from version 41 to version 60. On paper, it was a planned, structured move. In practice, it was a moment of extreme vulnerability. That’s where Elenjical Solutions came in — a long-time Murex partner, brought in to lead the Market Risk component of the transition.
The weekend window: where risk gets real
“For a bank, Monday morning is non-negotiable,” says Robert Cronje, Senior Consultant at Elenjical Solutions. “Traders need to log in. Positions need to load. Reports need to run. If the system isn’t ready, the bank starts losing money immediately.”
That urgency defines the upgrade window: a few hours between Friday evening and Monday morning to tear out and replace the engine of a multi-jurisdictional trading platform. Planning helps — but no test environment can simulate everything. And the closer the system is to live, the less predictable it becomes.
“I’ve worked on upgrades remotely,” Cronje continues, “but this was my first time on-site. You hear the tone in people’s voices, the pressure. You realise how quickly the stakes shift. Something that’s theoretical at 10am can become critical by 3pm.”
When the map doesn’t match the terrain
Even with regression packs, automated testing, and an experienced team, the upgrade surfaced unexpected issues. Some were tied to real-world production use cases — the kind that never show up in planning documents. Others emerged from the complexity of the Market Risk module itself, which had undergone major changes to its scenario handling functionality.
“The new scenario dashboards offer powerful features,” says Cronje. “They’re more flexible, more auditable, and much easier to work with. But they also assume a deep familiarity. If you don’t fully understand the mechanics, you can misinterpret outputs — or trust results that aren’t quite right.”
This is where Elenjical’s real value was felt — not in delivering perfect certainty, but in being able to move fast, recognise what mattered, and fix issues before they spread. That kind of judgement isn’t built into the software. It comes from experience — and from being close enough to the problem to feel it shift.
Risk can’t be eliminated — but it can be understood
The upgrade in Spain was, ultimately, a success. The bank gained access to new features, saw performance improvements, and made a clean transition to a future-ready platform. But it also exposed a deeper truth about risk in financial systems: it’s never fully knowable, and it certainly isn’t static.
“The project teams often assume a system is being used one way,” says Robert. “But when you’re there in person, you see that usage is more dynamic — more human — than the design anticipates. That’s when risk emerges. Not because something failed, but because something was misunderstood.”
Why the best control is knowing when to let go
In today’s banking landscape, the most dangerous risk is often the one you didn’t know you were running. And that makes the illusion of control more dangerous than risk itself.
What Elenjical Solutions brought to the upgrade wasn’t perfect foresight. It was real-time fluency — the ability to interpret, respond, and guide a system back to coherence even when the original plan no longer applies.
That’s the new model of risk management: not a fortress, but a flexible framework. Not the pretence of certainty, but the clarity to act when certainty disappears. Because in the end, risk will always be there. The question is: when it arrives, who do you want in the room?