Fraud Risk Expected to Rise

Senior executives expect fraud to pose a significant challenge over the next 12 months, according to KPMG Forensic’s recently released Fraud Survey 2009. Nearly one-third (32%) of the senior executives surveyed said they expect some form of fraud or misconduct to increase in their organizations. A majority (65%) said that fraud and misconduct poses a significant risk to their industry today.

What is their greatest concern if such wrongdoing is experienced? More than 70% were concerned with the potential loss of public trust at a time when market confidence is at a premium.

Also, 66% of the executives reported that inadequate internal controls or compliance programs at their organizations enable fraud and misconduct to go unchecked, and they identified the following areas in need of the most improvements in antifraud efforts: employee communication and training (67%), technology-driven continuous auditing and monitoring techniques (65%), and fraud and misconduct risk assessment (60%).

Source: KPMG, kpmg.com/aci/fraud_risk.asp.