Enterprise risk management surges amid pandemic, RIMS reports

By Zainab Iwayemi

A survey conducted by the Risk and Insurance Management Society Incorporated (RIMS) has shown that almost half of the organisations increased their reporting of pandemic risks in response to COVID-19, while 34 percent increased their focus on low-likelihood or high-impact risks in 2020.

The 2020 Enterprise Risk Management Benchmark survey, which saw 288 risk management professionals across more than 14 industries and 613 risk management professionals respond to the Environmental Resource Management (ERM) COVID-19 survey, shows that resources allocated for enterprise risk management grew by 22 percent as a result of pandemic challenges, which triggered an increasing appreciation for the contribution of risk management, while 20 percent of respondents reported that whether through new executive leadership, management level committee oversight or board-level oversight, the global.

According to the report, “The COVID-19 pandemic triggered both increased scrutiny and visibility of risk management as it highlighted the interdependencies of risk throughout an organisation’s ecosystem”.

Additionally, the survey found More than 50 percent of ERM programmes have shifted their focus to health and safety and business continuity in response to the pandemic, while 98 percent of organisations have a fully or partially integrated ERM, up 26 percent from 2017, and 76 percent of senior leadership teams and boards apply ERM insights in business decisions.

“Enterprise risk management is now an accepted mainstream business discipline. That said, work still needs to be done to make ERM fully integrated, agile and proactive,” the survey said.