A recent survey by PricewaterhouseCoopers Ireland found that cyberattacks have surpassed overregulation as the top concern of bank and capital markets CEOs around the world.
Of the 188 executives surveyed, an "overwhelming majority," or 89%, are worried about cybersecurity, while 93% will invest in it more in 2018, the report said. Ciarán Kelly, advisory leader with PwC Ireland, said: "The importance of cyber protection to customer trust underlines the extent to which cyber threats are a strategic rather than just IT risk."
About 57% of the respondents believed that economic growth will improve in the next 12 months, compared to only 30% a year ago, PwC noted. However, this has not translated into "increasing confidence in the prospects for their own organizations," said Ronan Doyle, PwC Ireland banking partner, as only 38% of CEOs were very confident about their companies' capacity to improve revenue growth in the next 12 months, compared to 40% in 2017.
CEOs have also started to see financial technology companies as valued partners for innovation and talent, rather than as rivals, the report added.
