US institutions' inability to handle Trump-inspired populism a big worry, says the European Risk Management Council.

Donald Trump may have finally conceded this week that Joe Biden will become the next US president – less than two weeks before Mr Biden’s inauguration – after a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol Building in Washinton DC, but worries about the rise of populism in the world’s richest country remain sky high.

The European Risk Management Council’s chairman, Evgueni Ivantsov, said that populism was the chief geopolitical concern that emerged from the council’s latest global survey of risk managers.

“Democracy in the US appears to be more fragile than it has ever looked,” Mr Ivantsov said. “The central rule of risk management is to address and eradicate emerging risks as soon as possible and well before they trigger a tail risk event.

“During his term in office, Donald Trump did everything in his power to undermine democracy. This threat was pretty obvious. But it is concerning that US institutions weren’t able to address it at an early stage.”

The European Risk Management Council polled over 270 senior risk managers, including 150 chief risk officers, across 35 countries at the end of October 2020, shortly before the US presidential election.

Among other questions, professionals were also asked about the risks that the financial services industry was least prepared for – climate change and a break-up of social cohesion were the top two concerns.

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