Insurance giant Allianz has revealed the biggest risk factors for small businesses in 2022, with ‘business interruptions’, financial crime and climate change rated as the most likely to cause disruption in the year to come.
The 2022 Allianz Risk Barometer identified the potential for ‘business interruptions’ – whether through lockdowns or supply change problems – as the join biggest risk factor for SMEs in 2022, along with cyber incidents, such as hacking and financial crime.
The survey took in 89 countries across the globe, including Australia and New Zealand. In Australia, results were largely the same as other countries, though, perhaps understandably given the recent bushfires, storms and floods, our marketplace ranked natural catastrophes as their fourth biggest concern.
Also appearing for the first time in the Australian rankings was “shortage of skilled workforce”, a reflection of the staffing problems that many in the market have seen due to the ongoing lack of migration enforced by the pandemic.
“‘Business interrupted’ will likely remain the key underlying risk theme in 2022,” said Joachim Muller, CEO of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty.
“For most companies the biggest fear is not being able to produce their products or deliver their services. 2021 saw unprecedented levels of disruption, caused by various triggers.
“Crippling cyber-attacks, the supply chain impact from many climate change-related weather events, as well as pandemic-related manufacturing problems and transport bottlenecks wreaked havoc.
“This year only promises a gradual easing of the situation, although further COVID-19-related problems cannot page 2 be ruled out. Building resilience against the many causes of business interruption is increasingly becoming a competitive advantage for companies.”
