Is the UK Putting COVID-19 in the Rearview Too Early?

A recent survey of the United Kingdom’s financial sector sees pandemic response dropping in its risk ranking – are they ignoring indicators that we’re not done with the pandemic yet? The Bank of England’s 2022 H1 Systemic Risk Survey asked the UK financial sector how confident they are in the financial system and which risks they’re preparing for. The top 5:

• Cyberattack – 79%
• Geopolitical risk – 63%
• Inflation risk – 63%
• Pandemic – 51%
• Operational risk – 29%

(Note: this survey was completed Feb. 14, 2022, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.) The pandemic dropped out of the top 3, dropping from 57% in a previous survey. Cyberattacks were cited most frequently as the risk that would be most challenging to manage if it were to materialize. Meanwhile, climate risk is now being cited more often as a key risk to the UK financial system. In the recent survey, climate risk was cited by 24% of respondents and captured concerns around physical, transitional and environmental risks.