According to a new KPMG International survey report, regulatory pressure is consistently one of the biggest threats facing companies across industries, and the number one challenge facing financial services and energy and natural resources companies. Regulatory, namely government pressure to contain spending, was the top risk in healthcare.

The KPMG report noted that in the financial services industry, banks and other financial institutions face a plethora of new regulations, especially in Europe and the United States, where international banks face at least 40 major sets of new regulations that affect everything from how retail customers are treated to the way derivatives are traded. In addition, new global regulations for bank capital and liquidity, known as Basel III, came into effect in January 2013.

  • A full 70% of c-suite executives, across all industries, say that regulatory changes have caused either substantial or moderate changes in their risk management and reporting processes in the past two years.

  • 59% of c-suite executives at financial services companies and 53% of c-suite energy and natural resources executives identified regulation as their top threat

  • 50% of healthcare executives said government pressure to contain spending was their biggest threat

  • 49% of executives in diversified industrials said an economic slowdown in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development markets was their biggest risk

  • 44% of executives in technology media and telecom said a slowdown in demand was their biggest threat.

    “We found that risk management is not advancing fast enough at most companies in the face of an array of threats in an increasingly complex global economy,” said Mike Nolan, KPMG International’s global leader for risk consulting. “But companies can transform these challenges into a competitive advantage. All of their competitors are in the same boat, but very few are going to take advantage of the regulatory onslaught to become more competitive. The companies that do will be in a strong position to turn regulatory risk into an advantage.”

    To access the full KPMG survey click here.