RIMS recently released its third Risk Management Benchmark in Latin America report for 2018, a study produced in conjunction with Marsh Risk Consulting that identifies some of the top risks organizations are facing in the region, as well as trends in risk management.

Globally, cyber attacks have been ranked as the most significant emerging risk for organizations around the world, however, the RIMS report identified the regulatory environment as the highest risk in Latin America.

The third annual risk report explores the challenges associated with developing, implementing and advancing risk management strategies within regional organizations. It also provides a breakdown of the top risks in 10 leading Latin American countries, and by economic sector.

Marsh Risk Consulting Latin America Leader Gerardo Herrera says the annual benchmark report intends to help industry professionals in the region anticipate risks and turn them into real and sustainable competitive advantages.

“By benchmarking risk management in the region, RIMS and the industry's solution providers will be better prepared to deliver valuable resources that meet the specific needs of Latin America's risk management community,” Herrera said in a statement.

Key findings

The study reports that the five biggest concerns for Latin America are focused on regulatory issues, demand behaviors, cyber attacks, technological change, and competitors.

Among the study's key findings, only 25% of Latin American companies report having advanced levels of maturity in risk management.

Half of the companies in the region do not assess emerging risks (50%), and 55% found “lack of knowledge of key risk management concepts” to be the biggest obstacle to understanding the impact of emerging risks.

Cultural problems within organizations

Also among the key findings, 51% agreed that cultural problems within the organizations were the leading factor challenging the implementation of risk management.

Marsh Risk Consulting Assistant Vice President Antonia Durán, who is based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, says organizational culture is a key element in mobilizing, transforming, and adequately orienting an organization towards risk. When trying to successfully harvest the value created by risk management activities, an organization's culture can either greatly facilitate or greatly impede progress.

“The risk managers that participated in our focus groups agreed that policies, manuals, and processes can only do so much, since organizations are ultimately made up of people and their collective actions, thoughts, behaviors, and principles,” Durán says. “Unfortunately, the cultural factor is often relegated to a position of less priority compared with other risk management components during implementation and left to be addressed last in the action plan.”

Durán says the cultural factor should be addressed from the start and be used as a strategic element that enables risk management and truly facilitates the reaping of the benefits of implementing Enterprise Risk Management.

The results of this study are based on the responses of 294 surveys conducted through an online questionnaire between April and August 2017. Participants represented more than 10 countries in the region and 20 economic sectors.

The full report can be found on RIMS website.

Special Reports /

New RIMS report identifies top emerging risks in Latin America

Related Stories

Recommended For You