@Risk

Experian’s latest Business Benchmark Report is encouraging.

Business performance in Q4 improved in most categories quarter over quarter, and even though certain metrics remain negative from a year-over-year perspective, it’s clear many companies are working toward a more positive business profile.

For example:

Risk scores remained relatively stable over Q4 and the previous year. Interestingly, the largest businesses (those with more than 1,000 employees) showed the greatest quarter-over-quarter improvement (2.2 percent), but the largest decline (14.7 percent) year over year.

Days beyond terms (DBT) appears to be stabilizing quarter over quarter, as well. However, (more…)

Over the past few years, most global companies have intensified their focus enterprise-wide risk management (ERM).

Unfortunately, though, a new survey by the Zurich Financial Services Group (Zurich) found that only a small fraction of business executives are confident in how their organizations are managing risk.

Here are a few of the key findings from the study. Among the 1,419 business executives surveyed: (more…)

Vermont is known for maple syrup, fall foliage, covered bridges and now . . . embezzlement?

As strange as it sounds, Vermont topped the list of states with the highest risk of loss due to embezzlement in 2011, according to new research from Marquet International Ltd.

The 2011 Marquet Report On Embezzlement, examined 473 major employee theft cases active in the US last year and found that: (more…)

European insurers are racing to meet Solvency II requirements by the January 1, 2014 deadline, and many are facing a stiff head wind, particularly with respect to their reliance on third parties for data, the sophisticated risk modeling requirements and the difficulties associated with obtaining sufficiently detailed fund data.

More specifically, a new study by BNP Paribas Securities Services and InteDelta found that insurers are facing key challenges around: (more…)

Even though bottom-line and performance risks are regarded as the most serious threats facing the construction industry, few construction firms use formal risk mitigation procedures, according to McGraw-Hill Construction’s latest SmartMarket Report.

As the report points out, the complexity of today’s construction projects creates greater risks for inefficiencies than those faced by other industries. For example, participants in the study revealed that:

• Firms experience delays on nearly one-quarter (24 percent) of  their projects.
• 19 percent of projects go over budget, and the overrun averages 14 percent of the total project cost.
• 11 percent of projects experience disputes, with an average claim of more than $3 million.

Addressing risks like these early can help firms achieve significant cost benefits, and the report suggests that construction firms begin to focus on: (more…)