A new global survey of 250 senior decision-makers across large financial services firms (each with over 5,000 employees) reveals that 82 percent of organisations in the sector experienced either a data breach — via cyberattack — or an unintentional exposure of sensitive information in the past 12 months.
Scope and Key Findings of the Survey
The research, carried out by Blancco Technology Group, found that of the institutions reporting incidents:
- 43 percent attribute the breach or leak to stolen devices or storage drives.
- 37 percent reported losing customers as a direct result.
- 40 percent noted a decline in customer-related revenue.
- 36 percent said share-price erosion followed the incident.
Additionally, the study shows that 60 percent of respondents increased their compliance spend over the past year — by an average of 47 percent — to address evolving regulatory demands and digital-data risks.
Why This Trend Matters for Financial Services
Financial-services organisations handle some of the most sensitive and valuable data across industries. As noted by Blancco’s CEO, Lou DiFruscio:
“Financial services organisations manage some of the most sensitive and high-value data of any industry, making the sector a prime target for cyber-attacks and placing significant demands on data security and governance.”
With 4 in 5 firms reporting exposure, the risk profile in financial services is clearly shifting from occasional to endemic. The mix of legacy infrastructure, third-party dependencies, cloud transformation and increased regulatory burdens means the attack surface is expanding while complexity is rising.
Impacts Beyond the Immediate Breach
The consequences aren’t limited to data loss. For many firms, the breach-related impacts include:
- Customer attrition — firms cited an average 37 percent customer-loss rate post-breach.
- Revenue decline — nearly 40 percent of impacted entities reported reduced customer-related revenue flows.
- Market repercussions — over one-third of respondents said their share-prices dropped after the event.
- Compliance & remediation cost inflation — average budget increases of 47 percent for compliance indicate tightening pressure from regulators and boards.
Emerging Risk-Areas Highlighted by the Report
- Device- and drive-theft remain major exposure vectors: with 43 percent of breaches linked to stolen hardware, it shows that physical security and end-point hygiene remain material risks.
- Low adoption of data-sanitisation standards: only ~21 percent of firms require compliance with the NIST SP 800-88 Rev 1 sanitisation standard, and 19 percent adopt IEEE 2883 — leaving residual risk in device disposal and media reuse.
- AI and data-over-collection challenges: ~86 percent of firms say they have adopted some form of AI, but ~30 percent report that expanding ROT (redundant, obsolete and trivial data) is making governance and compliance harder.
Strategic Priorities for Financial-Services Leaders
Given the current landscape, leaders should focus on:
- Zero-trust access, with strict control over device usage and encryption of data-at-rest and in transit.
- Proactive device-inventory and sanitisation programmes, aligned with NIST, IEEE and regional standards.
- Third-party risk management, especially for outsourcing, cloud providers and device leasing firms.
- Data minimisation and active data-governance: fewer copies of sensitive data, tighter purpose-limits and lifecycle policies.
- Incident-response readiness: recognising that when 82 percent of peers have been hit, planning for breach containment and customer-impact management is no longer optional.
The Broader Implication for Trust and Regulation
With financial services firms now facing near-systemic breach frequency, the old assumption of “we’re unlikely to be hit” is no longer viable. Regulators — such as the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and European Banking Authority (EBA) — are increasing focus on digital-operational resilience frameworks. Firms that cannot demonstrate enduring data-security governance may face elevated regulatory intervention, increased insurance premiums and material business-impact outcomes.
