The vast majority (85 percent) of corporate executives say they need to overhaul their approach to risk management, according to results of an Accenture study released July 6. Accenture's 2009 Global Risk Management Study is based on a survey of 260 chief financial officers, chief risk officers and other executives with risk management responsibilities at large companies in 21 countries.

Survey respondents identified a number of common problems with their risk management functions, including:

• Ineffective integration of risk, return and capital issues in decision-making (identified by 85 percent of respondents);
• Lack of alignment between the company's strategies and its risk appetite (85 percent);
• Insufficient enterprise-wide risk culture (82 percent);
• Inadequate availability of timely risk, finance and business data (80 percent); 
• Lack of integration and aggregation across all risk types (78 percent); and
• Ambiguous risk responsibilities between corporate and business units (78 percent).

The survey also found that companies expect new risk-related challenges as a result of the current economic environment, including more stringent regulations and increasing costs associated with growing complexity in the risk environment. Forty-one percent of respondents reported that their risk management costs have increased by at least 25 percent in the past three years, including 14 percent who reported a 50 percent rise in these costs.

Consequently, companies are investing to increase their risk management capabilities. Forty percent of respondents said that their companies already have increased or will increase their spending in this area over the next six months. An additional 31 percent are considering additional investments to increase their risk management capabilities. 

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