Cybersecurity, bribery, and oil price and financial markets fluctuations are among chief concerns for businesses for the year ahead.
This was the key finding of a survey by the Institute of Risk Management (IRM), which asked its UK members to identify key risk areas for 2016.
IRM said that a broad range of financial, political and healthcare risks were highlighted and consistent with the risks identified by the World Economic Forum’s recently released Global Risks Report 2016.
Pan-Asia Risk and Insurance Management Association (Parima) chairman Franck Baron said
Further areas of risk concern were the effects of continued austerity measures in the UK and the impact of technology enabled disruptive business models.
When asked to assess the level of risk that will be at play across 2016, the outlook of those experts surveyed was ‘relatively pessimistic’.
IRM experts were asked to choose a number between one to 10 (1 being low risk, 10 being high risk) as their prediction of the scale of risk in the global economy in 2016. The majority chose seven when assessing overall risk for the year ahead, the IRM said.
IRM chairman Jose Morago said: “The impact of current macro trends and risks, such as cybersecurity, a new geopolitical landscape and an endemic low global growth environment will continue to put pressure on, and potentially change, entire business sectors.
“Leaders who think critically about the future, anticipate disruption to their sectors, while building resilience and agility in their models, will be in a better position to tackle a challenging risk environment in 2016 and thrive.”
Morago said this year the IRM would focus on providing support to businesses and risk professionals on ‘game-changing’ risks, including cyber and bribery regulation.
No comments yet