Legal, regulatory or compliance risks remain the main external factor that drives risk management efforts at European companies, according to a survey of European risk managers, though catastrophic events have been replaced by shareholder requirements as the second leading factor.

The 2012 Risk Management Benchmarking Survey from the Federation of European Risk Management Associations showed 61% of risk managers surveyed citing legal, regulatory or compliance requirements as the main external risk management driver at their companies, down from 70% in FERMA's 2010 survey.

Shareholder requirements were cited by 33%, down from 39% in 2010, while corporate social responsibility was mentioned by 31% of those surveyed, down from 34% in 2010.

While the 2010 survey showed 45% of those responding citing catastrophic events as a main external risk management driver, this year's survey showed only 26% mentioning catastrophic events as a primary risk management trigger.

The survey showed that 79% of E.U. companies regularly perform risk mapping and that, in terms of assessing and quantifying risks, 60% are using risk assessment workshops and 44% are using internal or external databases.

The survey also showed, however, that most companies do not integrate risk management with strategic decision-making, with 66% of the companies surveyed reporting that they don't perform a systematic risk analysis before making major corporate decisions.

The survey showed a clear link between risk management maturity and company performance, with those with advanced risk management practices showing stronger growth in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization and revenue.

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At companies with advanced risk management practices, 28% reported EBITDA growth of more than 10% compared with 22% where risk management was classified as mature, 15% for companies with moderate risk management practices, and 16% who said their risk management practices are emerging.

In terms of revenue, 29% with advanced risk management practices had revenue growth of more than 10% compared with 21% of those with either mature or moderate risk management practices and 18% of those who classified their risk management practices as emerging.

The results of the survey, which was conducted by FERMA in collaboration with Axa Corporate Solutions and Ernst & Young, were announced last week at the FERMA Seminar in Versailles, France.

The online survey was conducted between April 20 and June 17 and received responses from 809 members of FERMA member organizations and other approved risk and insurance managers.

Brussels-based FERMA brings together the national risk management association of 20 European countries and has 4,500 individual members.