CFO Slice

Insurance chief risk officers (CROs) are prioritising cyber security, advanced technology, and third-party dependencies as their most immediate concerns, while preparing for longer-term risks including climate transition, data ethics, and a potential global debt crisis, according to an EY/IIF survey of 106 insurers. Cyber risk remains the top near-term threat, cited by 80% of CROs, with growing focus on data protection, phishing, and vendor-related vulnerabilities, while insurers increasingly emphasize resilience, recovery, and real-time risk monitoring over simple compliance. At the same time, firms are accelerating the adoption of artificial intelligence across risk management and operations, although progress is constrained by skills shortages, data quality issues, and integration challenges, prompting wider implementation of AI governance frameworks. Rising reliance on third-party providers has elevated operational resilience and outsourcing risks to board-level priorities, with insurers strengthening oversight, testing, and continuity planning across increasingly complex ecosystems. Looking further ahead, CROs identify data privacy and ethics, climate transition, and systemic financial risks as key long-term threats, reflecting a shift toward more strategic, data-driven risk management as the function becomes more central to business decision-making.