Global specialist insurance and reinsurance market Lloyd’s, in collaboration with KPMG, published a report on Friday urging businesses to pay attention to the new risk landscape that has evolved under Covid. The report has stressed on the need for companies to protect their intangible assets.

Lloyd’s in a media statement said that the new report looks at how Covid has increased companies’ exposure to new risks, many of which involve intangible assets. With unprecedented scrutiny on firms’ behaviour, reputational issues are just one of many posing a threat to firms’ resilience during the pandemic, it said.

New ways of working are also presenting their own unique challenges, amplifying the complexity of managing intellectual property and conduct risk amongst a remote workforce. For businesses to stay resilient, operationally and financially, awareness of what intangible assets are and how they can be protected is critical and must form a considerable part of their risk management strategy, the statement said.

The report, titled ‘Protecting intangible assets: Preparing for a new reality’, is a part of a thought leadership series that was launched by Lloyd’s in July. The report looks at the increasing value of intangible assets, and the role of risk managers and the insurance industry in protecting them.

Intangible assets are forming an increasing proportion of companies’ balance sheets, already accounting for as much as 85 per cent of the total business value across industries, according to estimates. With the acceleration of digital business models, amplified by Covid-19, this value could now increase much further, becoming a major blindspot for firms not factoring intangible assets into their risk models, the statement added.

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