'Fin prof expect uncertainties on political,regulatory fronts'

Majority of financial professionals expect uncertainties, especially on political and regulatory fronts, to cast a shadow on the business performance of American corporates, says a study by Association for Financial Professionals (AFP).
The survey, produced in conjunction with Oliver Wyman, said that earnings uncertainty to continue in 2014 and they are focused on how potential political or regulatory risks and competition could potentially destabilise corporate performance.
The survey conducted among 500 financial professionals said 84 per cent of respondents report that their "organisations are exposed to the same or more uncertainty today than they were three years ago."
The top risk concerns have been shifted to competitors and customers rather than macro-economic factors such as credit, liquidity, interest rate, currency.

At the highest management levels, risk matters, as over 90 per cent of financial professionals note that risk management is either "very important" or "important" at the executive management level.
"We are finding that companies have better insight into risk when they coordinate risk management with the financial planning and analysis function," AFP President and CEO Jim Kaitz said.
"A good place to start is by engaging the CFO in a discussion about how the company manages risk now and what the risk management goals are," he added.
The survey noted that leading companies are focusing on collaboration between financial planning and analysis and risk management in a bid to improve the quality of finance and risk inputs.