Double-digit rise in crime against UK corporates as cyber becomes fastest-growing form of economic infraction
The UK has seen a double-digit rise in economic crime against corporates in the last two years, with 55% of organisations affected. This represents an increase of 11 percentage points since 2014, significantly outstripping the level in countries such as the US (38%) and China (28%). Globally, the economic crime rate has remained largely static at 36%.
The findings are contained in the biennial PwC Global Economic Crime Survey 2016, which posed questions to more than 6,000 participants in 115 countries (among them the UK).
PwC’s latest Global Economic Crime Survey reveals that 60% of economic crime in the UK was committed by external perpetrators (up from 56% in 2014). While the number of organisations reporting economic crime carried out by employees (31%) declined, there was a large increase in frauds found to be committed by senior management (which more than doubled from 7% to 18%).