Firms and public entities are both exposed to various types of risks that can make actual results quite different from expected results. This is not a news. However various factors heightened the attention paid to this problem in the last decades: the slower pace of economic developments, the greater volatility of financial variables, the new modus operandi of supervising authorities, the birth of new types of risks, the growing strength of retail clientele in defending its rights.The heightened attention paid to risks stimulated the development of new measurement methodologies, new hedging instruments and new management techniques. In turn this updated tool-case produced profound changes in the organizational behavior and in the management systems of ?irms and public entities.