While cybersecurity has always been an important topic for executive boards, on this year’s survey it stood out as one of the CEO’s most crucial technological issues. Within this realm, risk management and the impact of regulation on businesses were also top of mind for UK CEOs, specifically at financial sector firms. The survey found that on average, UK CEOs remain more concerned than those in other countries, and this concern has only grown since last year.
The results of this survey emphasize the importance of developing strong risk management and cybersecurity programs, something I continually stress to our clients. And the need for developing these best practice programs will only continue to grow over the next five years.
Today I have rounded up the stats I found most relevant to our financial sector clients. Read on to learn the most important stats from PwC’s 2016 survey and see how your approach to these technological issues compares to the average.
Cybersecurity Stats from the Survey:
-The amount of UK CEOs surveyed who now view cybersecurity as a crucial challenge has grown to 75% in 2016, compared to 67% in 2015. Globally, only 61% of CEOs view cybersecurity as a challenge to their business.
-As a whole, UK CEOs take cybersecurity more seriously than the global average, with only 25% saying that they are not concerned with cybersecurity, compared to 38% globally.
-The US still takes cybersecurity the most seriously, with 88% of CEOs exhibiting concern over the issue.
-In Europe, Italy and Spain take cybersecurity the least seriously, with only 42% and 43% viewing the issue as crucial challenge respectively.
Specifically within the financial industry:
-93% of UK CEOs anticipate having to make changes to way they define and manage risks in response to changing stakeholder expectations.
-90% of UK CEOs in this sector believe they have to make at least some change to how they use technology to assess and deliver on shareholder expectations.
-77% of UK CEOs feel technological advances will be the most likely to transform business expectations over the next five years.
-69% of UK CEOs feel that government and regulators will have at least a high or very high impact on their business’ strategy.
-79% of UK CEOs are somewhat or extremely concerned with the impact of over-regulation on their business growth.
Be sure to explore the full results of PwC UK’s 19th Annual CEO Survey to learn other interesting UK CEO perspectives and see how you compare!
