Australian companies score well in ERM, but 50/50 for built-in risk culture

Australian organisations benchmark above average against their global peers when it comes to enterprise risk management (ERM) practices, yet only half have built a risk culture into their organisation, a survey has revealed. 

The Institute of Actuaries ERM survey, released yesterday, found that 81 per cent of actuaries willing to compare Australia with other countries ranked Australian organisations as performing "above average" or "the middle of the pack" for ERM practices and management of risk culture. Only 11 per cent said they believed Australia lagged the rest of the world. 

Despite this positive result, only 52 per cent of organisations appear to have an embedded, formalised risk culture communicated to staff. Only 37 per cent of members surveyed said their organisation's approach to building and fostering a risk culture was "good" or "very good".

Institute of Actuaries chief executive officer Melinda Howes said ERM was increasingly important in the current macro-economic climate. 

"Continuing global financial market volatility and a spate of natural disasters in recent times highlight the need for effective enterprise risk management," she said. 

Respondents identified the top three benefits of effective ERM implementation as: minimising losses to the organisation (75 per cent); maximising return on equity (64 per cent); and managing expectations of customers, staff and investors (54 per cent).