ERIK BANKS has held senior risk management positions in several global financial institutions. In 2001, Erik joined XL Capitals weather/energy risk management subsidiary, Element Re, as Partner and Chief Risk Officer. Prior to that he spent 13 years at Merrill Lynch, where he was Managing Director of Corporate Risk Management, responsible for the firms risk infrastructure; before that he spent 8 years abroad, managing Merrills credit and market risk teams in London, Hong Kong and Tokyo. Prior to joining Merrill Lynch in 1988 he was credit officer at Citibank and Manufacturers Hanover in New York. Erik is author of seven other books on risk, emerging markets, derivatives, merchant banking and electronic finance; he is also editor and co-author of a book on weather risk management, and is working on various new financial texts.