PWC report finds that more than half of Canadian businesses were victim of fraud in 2007
Canadian small businesses are more at risk of economic crime and fraud than the average global company, and many are not doing enough to guard against it, said a recent study.
According to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers, the number of Canadian businesses that fall prey to economic crime stood at 52 percent in 2007, compared to 43 percent of global companies.
Canadian businesses suffer an average loss of US$3.7 million due to economic crimes - compared to just US$2.4 million as a global average - and that amount has been increasing in recent years.
In addition to direct financial losses, the report noted, Canadian small businesses that do not take the proper measures to guard against economic crime can experience damages in the form of management costs, customer trust, brand reputation and employee morale.
Despite this higher risk, 36 percent of Canadian businesses do not have a whistleblower hotline, 35 percent do not have an audit committee, 50 percent do not have adequate fraud risk management techniques, 67 percent do not have specific fraud related training and 20 percent do not have specific actions planned to deal with economic crime.
Payment processing security has been found to be a particular sore spot for Canadian small businesses, as studies have shown that the smaller the merchant, the less likely it is to be PCI compliant.
