Business disruption is the main risk facing companies this year, according to senior executives in an annual survey by Marsh and the Risk and Insurance Management Society.

Economic conditions, cashflow and liquidity, and regulatory compliance complete the top four issues for more than 1200 risk management professionals questioned.

Business disruption, which ranked just sixth last year, may have been pushed up by the “Superstorm Sandy effect”, Marsh says.

Last year’s top-ranked risk – legal and regulatory shifts – may have fallen away following the US election.

Risk management is in an “evolutionary period”, and is yet to be fully integrated strategically into businesses, the survey finds.

The main reason it is included in executive activities is to identify and assess risks arising from strategic plans, according to most respondents. 

But 40% of those questioned say risk managers should be empowered to provide strategic risk input to the planning stage, rather than being brought in afterwards.

Only 15% say risk managers are full members of their strategic planning and execution teams.

Three-quarters do not aggregate risks at the portfolio level, which demonstrates an “immediate opportunity”, Marsh says.

Almost three-quarters say their organisations should conduct deeper analysis of risk-related data, with better use of data and analytics the preferred method.

In terms of catastrophe planning, risk managers are more strategically focused on company-wide impacts, while senior executives’ priorities lay with ensuring adequate insurance is in place.

The report was launched at the recent RIMS conference.