The risks map of the globe has been altered by the still dominant Corona virus pandemic that has reshuffled risks prevalence and prominence in a risk connected world. What has sprout is that, business interruption, pandemic outbreak and cyber incidents took the top three spots in the Allianz Risk Barometer 2021.
Joachim Muller, CEO of Allianz Global Corporate and Specialty, in the latest Allianz Risk Barometer 2021 said: “The Allianz Risk Barometer 2021 is clearly dominated by the COVID-19 trio of risks. Business interruption, pandemic and cyber are strongly interlinked, demonstrating the growing vulnerabilities of our highly globalized and connected world.”
Muller with a strong portrait dimension on new risks that are realigning and reversing previous order of top risks frequent positions added: “The coronavirus pandemic is a reminder that risk management and business continuity management need to further evolve in order to help businesses prepare for, and survive, extreme events.
“While the pandemic continues to have a firm grip on countries around the world, we also have to ready ourselves for more frequent extreme scenarios, such as a global-scale cloud outage or cyber-attack, natural disasters driven by climate change or even another disease outbreak.”
The realignment and displacement of traditional risks probable position was evident in the way risks were captured. Insolvency risks captured under the heading ‘market developments’ climbed the barometer into fourth position. Macroeconomic development risks, and political risks and violence also rose in the survey.
In the line of displacement, several risks fell off the order of previous positions; they were not on the wings of the energetic pandemic. Fallers included changes in legislation and regulation, natural catastrophes, fire/explosion, and climate change.
Philip Beblo, an expert in AGCS’s global property underwriting team, with focus synonymous with a chopper view of the emerging global risks direction and preponderance said: “The consequences of the pandemic – wider digitalisation, more remote working and the growing reliance on technology of businesses and societies – will likely heighten BI risks in coming years.
Despite the command and control spin of the pandemic in creating prominence for certain new and also some traditional risks, by creating new risks spots, “However, traditional physical risks will not disappear and must remain on the risk management agenda. Natural catastrophes, extreme weather or fire remain the main causes of BI for many industries and we continue to see a trend for larger losses over time.”
