Earlier this year, I wrote that cyber crime and cross-border fraud were among the top 10 business risks. Pretty much the result of greater technological complexity and more cross-border transactions in a global economy.

The scenarios sound familiar. A global energy company discovers that one of its executives is siphoning resources into a company in which he has an interest and which is located in another country. A bank learns that a crime syndicate is money laundering, digitally flashing millions at the click of a mouse button.

Now we have evidence that companies are not that well prepared.

A KPMG International survey has found that 92 per cent of executives from around the world expect the number of international investigations to increase or at least remain the same in the year ahead.

But more than half (56 per cent) said they did not have sufficient protocols to investigate. Most didn't dedicated experts inside to manage cross-border investigations.

The executives nominated four big challenges when it comes to tackling cross-border fraud: cultural, language and legal differences; planning the initial response to an incident of alleged fraud or misconduct; having an investigative team with the right expertise; and the availability and accessibility of electronic data.