As banks and regulators scurry to respond to the most perilous industry conditions since the 2007-08 financial crisis, experts say one persistent issue needs attention: risk oversight that’s not always up to the job.

Board-level risk committees at many banks have neither the clout nor the expertise to push back against corporate leadership, risk professionals say, a weakness that should be addressed in the wake of the recent bank collapses.

The largest banks, those with $50 billion or more in consolidated assets, are required by law to maintain a risk committee that reports directly to the bank holding company’s board. Those committees must include at least one member with experience in “identifying, assessing, and managing” risk exposures of large financial firms, according to an amended version of the Dodd-Frank Act, which was passed after the financial crisis. 

But the board-level risk committees often don’t go beyond that single qualified member and can sometimes lack the expertise to stand up to senior management, said Clifford Rossi, a former chief risk officer for Citigroup Inc.’s consumer lending group and now a professor at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business.