With the world's banks bleeding from their over-exposure to bone-headed investments and bad loans, the latest hot job is the Chief Risk Officer.

Bank of America, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley have all announced that they have a Chief Risk Officer, not before time given the way they have blown money, and many more are expected to follow suit. More to the point, it's likely to spread to other sectors.

Financial Week reports that 25 individuals at public companies were hired as or promoted to CRO in 2007. That's a 25 per cent increase over the previous year. And hires and promotions in 2008 are on track to outpace last year's number by 140 per cent. And this might be just the beginning.