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A trio of COVID-19 related risks heads up the 10th Allianz Risk Barometer 2021, reflecting potential disruption and loss scenarios companies are facing in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Business interruption ranked as the top business risk, followed by pandemic and cyber incidents, respectively. The annual survey on global business risks from Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) incorporates the views of 2,769 experts in 92 countries and territories, including CEOs, risk managers, brokers and insurance experts.
“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,” says Joachim Müller, CEO of AGCS. “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 COVID-19 crisis continues to represent an immediate threat to both individual safety and businesses, reflecting why pandemic outbreak has rocketed 15 positions up to #2 in the rankings at the expense of other risks. Prior to 2021, it had never finished higher than #16 in 10 years of the Allianz Risk Barometer, a clearly underestimated risk. However, in 2021, it’s the top risk in 16 countries and among the three biggest risks across all continents and in 35 out of the 38 countries that qualify for a top 10 risks analysis.
Market developments also climbs up the Allianz Risk Barometer 2021 to #4, reflecting the risk of rising insolvency rates following the pandemic. Other risers include macroeconomic developments, political risks, and violence, which are, in large part, a consequence of the coronavirus outbreak. Fallers in this year’s survey include changes in legislation and regulation (natural catastrophes, explosions or fires, and climate change.
In the United States, business interruption topped the list, followed by pandemic outbreak and cyber incidents.
Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, business interruption had already finished at the top of the Allianz Risk Barometer seven times and it returns to the top spot after being replaced by cyber incidents in 2020. The pandemic shows that extreme global-scale business interruption events are not just theoretical, but a real possibility, causing loss of revenues and disruption to production, operations and supply chains. Nearly 60 percent of respondents highlight the pandemic as the main cause of business interruption in 2021.