More UK mid-sized companies have created risk management committees and taken out insurance to manage risk since 11 September, a new study from Marsh shows.
More UK mid-sized companies have created risk management committees and taken out insurance to manage risk since 11 September 2001, a new study from Marsh shows.
The risk management and insurance services firm said that of the UK companies surveyed before 11 September, 74% had formal plans in place to address risk. However, after 11 September, only 57% still thought their plans were adequate.
Marsh said this had resulted in more companies taking steps to manage the risk of "high impact" incidents that varied from increased competition to IT security failure to acts of terrorism.
In total, the Marsh study covered approximately 600 companies across seven sectors in six major European countries. It revealed that UK companies were the best prepared in Europe to deal with high impact risks.
The research showed that only half of European companies outside the UK had formal plans to address risks to their businesses. German companies were found to review their risk management procedures at least every six months while French companies were more likely to manage risk on an ad hoc basis.
However, the findings also showed that mid-sized and emerging companies still lagged behind their larger multi-national counterparts in developing formal procedures for identifying and mitigating high impact risks.
Findings from the full Marsh report "Managing Risk in Europe" will be published in the New Year. It will include research and expert commentary on the nature of risk, company attitudes towards risk, what businesses perceive to be the most important risks facing them, awareness of loss and a review of risk procedures.
