Economic crime is increasingly plaguing U.S. firms according to a recent survey by PWC. Key findings include:
- “45% of organizations in the U.S. suffered from some type of fraud in the past two years, more than the global average of 37%.
- More than half of U.S. organizations that experienced fraud in the last two years reported an increase in the number of occurrences….
- 24% of U.S. organizations that reported economic crime experienced accounting fraud in 2009. In 2011, this dropped to 16%. In 2014, accounting fraud increased back to 23%…
- The external perpetrator of fraud is closing the gap on the internal perpetrator of fraud, with U.S. organizations reporting that economic crime is committed by external actors (45% of the time) almost as often as it’s committed by internal actors (50% of the time).
- Most internal frauds are now perpetrated by middle management: 54% of internal frauds were committed by middle management
- There’s been a rise in the number of frauds committed by middle management: 45% in 2011 v. 54% in 2014
- There’s been a drop in the number of frauds committed by junior staff: 50% in 2011 v. 31% in 2014″
Another interesting item was the high usage of a whistleblower mechanism (86% of US organizations) and the associated positive reviews (83%) of the effectiveness of such a practice. This article provides best practices for whistleblower hotlines.
