Who owns the specific costs and risks associated with providing a service?

The Service Provider is the entity that manages the resources, capabilities, and infrastructure required to deliver services and therefore assumes the associated costs and operational risks. This ownership model is fundamental to ITIL's service definitions - customers pay for outcomes and transfer delivery risk to the provider. The separation of ownership from consumption is a key concept in understanding ITIL service relationships.

The Service Level Manager is responsible for negotiating, documenting, and monitoring SLAs, but does not own the financial costs or operational risks of service delivery.

The Customer defines service requirements and pays for outcomes but deliberately transfers the costs and risks of service delivery to the Service Provider through contractual agreements.

The Finance department oversees organizational budgets and financial controls but does not own the specific delivery risks or costs associated with any particular service.