92 per cent of directors and executives in Spain identify data loss as their greatest concern in 2026. This is according to the Global Directors and Officers 2026 survey conducted by Willis, a WTW company, which analyses the risk perceptions of governing bodies in more than eight regions around the world.
Reported by Consejeros Editorial Team
Data loss is the main risk for Spanish executives. Specifically, 92 per cent of directors and executives in Spain view it as their main threat in 2026, which is 16 points above the global average (76 per cent), according to the Global Directors and Officers 2026 survey conducted by Willis, a WTW company, which analyses the risk perceptions of governing bodies across more than eight regions of the world.
The results for Spain show that the risk landscape for executives in Spain has changed significantly, gradually shifting towards greater operational, technological and personnel-related exposure. “Operational and technological risks have overtaken financial and corporate risks as the main source of exposure, and this has direct implications not only for how risks are managed within organisations, but also for how directors’ and officers’ protection cover is structured,” says Ulysses Grundey, Head of D&O and Reputational Risk at WTW Spain.
The report calls these protection structures within Spanish companies into question by showing a lower propensity than the global average to award full compensation to their executives. In fact, most companies express doubts as to whether the limits of their D&O policies will be sufficient in the face of increasingly complex claims scenarios.
The seven major risks in Spain
After data loss (92 per cent), the Spanish ranking is completed by health and safety (90 per cent), cyberattacks (87 per cent), internal control systems (79 per cent), human rights violations (76 per cent), bribery and corruption (76 per cent) and regulatory non-compliance (75 per cent).
Globally, the ranking shows a different order with clear differences: it is topped by health and safety (77%), followed by data loss (76%), cyberattacks (75%), systems and controls (66%), regulatory non-compliance (65%), bribery and corruption (59%) and geopolitical risks (59%).
Furthermore, the report highlights the need to adapt board agendas to actual risks and priorities.
For example, Spanish boards of directors continue to devote more time to corporate strategy (62 per cent), financial monitoring (49 per cent) and investments and M&A (36 per cent) than to artificial intelligence, which accounts for barely 5 per cent, despite being one of the main sources of emerging risk identified. Grundey emphasises that this mismatch is precisely where a large proportion of D&O claims originate: the risks are known, but they are not always managed with the necessary depth. Other risks such as cyber security and climate risk have fallen over the past year: from 24 per cent to 15 per cent in the former case and from 19 per cent to 3 per cent in the latter.
Within the field of health and safety, the report reveals that ‘burnout tops the list of occupational risks in Spain (48%), surpassing mental health, which tops the global ranking (40%).
A significant new development in this edition of the report is the first-ever inclusion of geopolitical risks in the global top 7 (59%), displacing civil litigation and third-party claims, which held that position in 2025.
