May 13, 2015 - The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced that almost half of the respondents (46%) in its most recent Systemic Risk Barometer Study cited cyber security as their top concern and 80% of respondents rated it as a top 5 risk overall.

The cyber security rating has almost doubled in just one year[i] as security incidents continue to rise across the financial markets and other key industry sectors, with specific respondent feedback citing the growth in the "frequency and sophistication of cyber attacks". As a result, many market participants have increased their investment in technology to detect and prevent cyber threats, with the goal of ensuring "uninterrupted access to (threat) data." At the same time, firms have increased hiring for cyber security roles and have provided greater training and educational opportunities across their organizations.

"Cyber security threats continue to grow each and every day, as attackers become more sophisticated," stated Mark Clancy, Managing Director, CISO Technology Risk Management, DTCC and CEO, Soltra. "With cyber security identified as the industry's top risk, it is critical that we develop and implement solutions that enable the timely sharing of data to prevent incidents as well as to promote faster incident detection and response."

The call for cyber threat data sharing has been echoed by market participants, regulators and infrastructure providers alike, as firms seek to share information to prevent and respond to attacks more quickly. Most recently, the US House and Senate took proactive steps to confront the cyber security challenge and are working towards enactment of legislation to improve information sharing to protect critical infrastructure.

In addition to cyber security, respondents cited geo-political risk, local market policies, the impact of new regulations, and a global economic slowdown as additional areas of systemic risk. In fact, 73% of respondents indicated they have increased the amount of resources dedicated to identify, monitor and mitigate systemic risk, a continued trend.

Added Mike Leibrock, Managing Director and Chief Systemic Risk Officer, DTCC, "The industry remains committed to continuing to identify and respond to all types of risk that could create firm-level or systemic incidents. Market participants are not only concerned with the reputational damage that could be caused to their organizations, but also the reputational impact to the industry as a whole."