Risk in Focus – Hot Topics for Internal Auditors – AFRICA – 2026
The report highlights Africa’s rapidly evolving risk landscape, dominated by cybersecurity, digital disruption, business resilience, fraud, and financial/liquidity pressures. Acute foreign exchange shortages, inflation, and climate-related shocks heighten liquidity risk and force short-term decision-making, especially in public finances and infrastructure projects. Rapid digitalization and a dynamic fintech sector create major opportunities for inclusion and efficiency, but low cyber awareness, weak data governance, and skills gaps amplify cybercrime and fraud exposure. Chief audit executives are rebalancing toward more advisory work, embedding resilience, culture, and governance into audits, and pushing for better tools, training, and board engagement to respond to these interconnected threats.
Risk in Focus – Hot Topics for Internal Auditors – Global Summary – 2026
The 2026 Global Risk in Focus report shows cybersecurity remaining the top global risk and audit priority, while digital disruption (including AI) and geopolitical uncertainty record the sharpest year-on-year increases. Other leading risks are business resilience, human capital, and regulatory change, with notable regional spikes in digital disruption (Latin America, Middle East, Africa) and geopolitical risk (North America, Europe, Latin America). Audit plans are converging globally around cybersecurity, governance/corporate reporting, and business resilience, with growing but still lagging audit attention to digital disruption, geopolitical risk, and human capital constraints.
KPMG Internal Audit: Key Risk Areas 2026
KPMG’s 2026 paper highlights an evolving risk landscape where internal audit must become more agile, tech-savvy, and forward-looking. Ten priority areas are flagged: cybersecurity, AI and digital disruption, data governance/privacy, ESG, supply chain, geopolitical and macroeconomic volatility, regulatory change, human capital, business continuity/resilience, and organizational governance/reporting. The report stresses stronger assurance over AI ethics and bias, geopolitical exposure, continuity planning, and regulatory compliance, alongside deeper coverage of soft controls, culture, and talent. KPMG positions co-/outsourced internal audit support and specialist SMEs as levers to strengthen audit quality and coverage.
Global risk & resilience outlook 2026
The report outlines an “expanding risk zone” in 2026, where frequent, fast-moving and interconnected threats overwhelm traditional business continuity and demand integrated organizational resilience. It highlights ten critical risks: cyberattacks and systemic cyber risk, AI’s dual edge, climate-driven natural disasters, geopolitical conflict, supply-chain shocks, misinformation, regulatory fragmentation, macro‑financial instability, talent shortages and overlapping polycrises. Survey data show half of organisations lack a formal critical event management strategy and many never test plans, revealing major gaps in training, technology and crisis communications. The report proposes a five‑stage resilience strategy and high‑velocity critical event management to move from reaction to anticipation
Risk Outlook 2026 – International SOS
Risk Outlook 2026 depicts a world where volatility is the normal operating environment, with converging security, health and geopolitical pressures testing organisational resilience. A global survey of 860 leaders highlights intersecting drivers of uncertainty, including geopolitical tensions, cyber crime, economic instability, extreme weather, mental health risks and misinformation, all intensifying pressure on workforces. Nearly half of risk specialists report increased interconnectedness of threats, with security and medical issues now rarely separable in crises. International SOS stresses intelligent, continuous preparedness that fuses advanced analytics, AI and expert judgement to protect people, sustain continuity and turn uncertainty into strategic advantage.
WEF Global Risk Report – 2026
The 2026 Global Risks Report warns that an age of intense global competition is eclipsing multilateral cooperation, driving uncertainty and systemic fragility. Geoeconomic confrontation and state-based armed conflict dominate short‑term risks, while economic downturn, debt burdens and asset bubbles intensify concern over financial stability. Societal polarization, fuelled by inequality and mis/disinformation, is eroding trust, weakening social contracts and pressuring democratic institutions. Environmental risks fall down the two‑year agenda but remain the most severe over a 10‑year horizon, as extreme weather, ecosystem degradation and stressed infrastructure threaten long‑term resilience.
Global Threat Report – Survey Results – 2024
The 2024 edition of the CrowdStrike Global Threat Report arrives at a pivotal moment for our global community of protectors. The speed and ferocity of cyberattacks continue to accelerate as adversaries compress the time between initial entry, lateral movement and breach.
Assessment of Money Laundering, Terrorist Financing and Proliferation Financing Risk in the Banking Sector
The Prudential Authority (PA) of the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) is responsible for anti-money laundering and counter-financing of terrorism
(AML/CFT) supervision of banks, mutual banks and life insurers. As such, the PA
assesses the risks related to these aspects. It embarked on its second banking
sector risk assessment by surveying 34 banks in March 2021.
2023 Chief Risk Officer Survey – Navigation compounding Threats and Opportunities in a Fast Moving World
Volatile market conditions. Geopolitical instability. Rapid innovation and technological change. Increased business transformation and digitisation. Mounting compliance requirements. Stakeholder attention on environmental and social issues. Across industries, organisations are facing more threats and operating in an increasingly complex risk landscape.
Cyber Risk Survey – South Africa – 2023
The survey offers commentary on the future direction of cybersecurity given the rapidly evolving manner of the risk, it’s solutions and legislative policies, to provide forward looking guidance to organisations. With the changes to the velocity and severity of the risk drivers associated with cyber, organisations should consider the following:
1.Is there sufficient awareness of the risk, from a governance perspective?
2.Is there sufficient protection against it, from a business resilience perspective?
3.Is there sufficient balance sheet protection?