The buck does not stop with the CEO, it stops with the company’s board, who represent investors and who the CEO answers to. The CRO often reports to the board a

The buck does not stop with the CEO, it stops with the company’s board, who represent investors and who the CEO answers to. The CRO often reports to the board and at the very least, communicates directly with them. The reason for the role of CRO is that the CEO, CFO and other C suite executives are not really aligned with investors incentive-wise. If the bank does really well, the CEO gets huge bonuses. If the bank crashes, the CEO gets fired but typically doesn’t lose all their money like investors do. Hence the need for the board’s function in risk management and a CRO to help them with that. In a bank, the risks are unique and often hard to see which is why risk management is often a huge department. None of this exonerates the CEO. Of course they are to blame when things go wrong. But when financial risk is a huge part of a business, it’s good to have some backup for that role as well.