Our correspondent Andreas Frank writes: As an illustration of the prevalence of fraud globally, 1 in 5 CEOs report they have been asked to pay a bribe. Another finding that should be a concern to general counsels and other in-house attorneys is that one in five businesses participating in the survey did not have an anti-bribery/anti-corruption policy in place.

In a statement, Ernst & Young (EY) said it is “imperative” for companies to have a “robust” strategy to respond to incidents.

The EY survey of over 2,700 executives located in 59 nations show that close to 40 percent of executives saw that bribery and corruption were widespread in their nations. Yet, some 48 percent of those surveyed, saw cyber-crime to be a very low risk or fairly low risk to their business. EY says the respondents apparently underestimate risk from organized crime and foreign governments.

More than 1 in 10 executives surveyed reported their company as having experienced a significant fraud in the past two years. In fact, the level of fraud reported by respondents has remained largely unchanged over the past six years: from 13% in 2008 to 12% in 2014.

At a country level, results are evenly split between those countries reporting an increased incidence of fraud and those reporting a decrease since our last survey.

Ten countries recorded a significant increase, including the US (16% in 2014, up from 8% in 2012), China (8%, up from 4%), Japan (10%, up from 6%) and Russia (16%, up from 10%).

In six countries, more than 25% of respondents reported experiencing a significant fraud in the past two years. These included Egypt (the highest level at 44%), but also Germany and Norway (26%).  Respondents also reported personal experiences of fraud risks. For example, 17% of respondents have been asked to pre-date or post-date contracts.

In a statement sent to Inside Counsel, Loughman said the survey data “suggests there is much work to be done in compliance because only 38% of c-suite executives responded they had been through ABAC [anti-bribery/anti-corruption] training.”

“To the extent compliance reports to legal there is an opportunity for improved advocacy by general counsels to strengthen the ‘tone at the top,’” he added.

The survey comes as cybercrime is becoming more prevalent, and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is increasingly focusing on cyber risks, Loughman said. As a result, company boards and their audit committees “need to be vigilant in monitoring these risks,” Loughman said.
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