Global Economic Crime Survey 2005

November 2005

The threat of economic crime - from simple cases of asset misappropriation to complex accounting manipulation – is more prominent than ever on the agendas of company directors and financial regulators. But executives have had little hard information to assess the scale of the problem they face.

How prevalent is fraud? What is its real damage? Who perpetrates it? What are the most common problem areas? And are there really any effective ways of mitigating the risk?

Our third Global Economic Crime Survey is based on interviews with more than 3,600 senior executives in 34 countries, and reveals their experiences with fraud, its causes and losses, their responses and recovery actions, and the effectiveness of fraud prevention measures.

The results, in respect of the UK, show a mixed picture with both worrying and encouraging trends in the prevalence, detection and prevention of economic crime. The UK is well above the global average figure with 55% of organisations reporting having fallen victim to economic crime over the past two years, and with a significant increase in the incidence of financial misrepresentation.

You can download this report, as well as a UK supplement, on our global pages.