Executive summary

◾ More than 500 C‑suite executives across banks, asset managers, asset owners, and other financial institutions took part in a global survey conducted in January 2026 by RepRisk in collaboration with Oxford Economics. Their perspectives reveal why trusted, transparent business conduct risk data is becoming increasingly critical for navigating escalating complexity and supporting high‑quality decision‑making.

◾ The research indicates that the average business conduct risk incident carries a multimillion-dollar cost, and these costs are set to rise as emerging risks intensify. Business conduct risk data can help organizations identify and address these risks before they hit balance sheets. Companies increasingly recognize that delaying investment raises long‑term costs, strengthening the case for sustained, strategic funding in business conduct risk data.

◾ Business conduct risk is intensifying across regions and sectors, with incidents becoming more frequent, complex, and costly. Material risks are shifting to new, fast‑evolving exposures such as AI, data integrity, and the energy transition, demanding new capabilities. The consequences of significant risk incidents now extend well beyond compliance and security, making prevention and early detection a commercial necessity.

◾ Most executives expect business conduct risk data to be more valuable to their company over the next two to three years. Treating it as a strategic asset, and investing before crises occur, improves both resilience and decision quality. While usage is higher in regulatory and monitoring workflows, significant opportunity remains to embed the data more systematically across the enterprise.

◾ The type of methodology used by business conduct risk data providers matters. Hybrid human-AI approaches earn the greatest trust and are seen as delivering decision‑grade quality, while AI‑only and human-only methods face broad skepticism.

◾ The primary barriers to embedding business conduct risk data across workflows are internal, including siloed teams, fragmented systems, and inconsistent taxonomies. Cross‑functional governance and integrated platforms are essential to consistently embed the data at the point of decision. Companies that get this right convert data into earlier detection, faster response, fewer penalties, and clearer commercial differentiation, as shown by the top performers in our study.