Chinese firms have high compliance risks:Ernst & Young

Enterprises in China may optimize their mechanism of reducing compliance risks by promoting training and strengthening checks by using big-data to identify high-risk records of compliance behavior, said Shin.

Unethical behaviors persist, the report said, including offering entertainment to win or retain business, giving personal gifts and giving cash payments and misstating a company's financial performance. About 42 percent of the respondents said they feel at least one of these behaviors can be justified if it helps the business survive an economic downturn.

Avoiding risk of corporate bribery

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The difficulties of the C-suite, including chief executive officers, chief financial officers, and chief compliance officers can only be heightened by insufficient awareness of the risks they face, the report said, as findings point out that they are less likely than their teams to attend anti-bribery or anti-corruption policy training or participate in such risk assessment.

Only 38 percent of respondents said they have participated in the anti-bribery or anti-corruption policy training, according to the report.

CEOs are especially exposed to compliance risks as 21 percent of the CEOs said that they had been approached to pay a bribe in the past, compared with 10 percent of all C-suite interviewees.

"Given the risk of management overriding financial controls, the implications for the board from these findings about C-suite integrity are serious. Enhancing board connections with business and finance leaders in the company - but below the C-suite - would be useful to confirm that the board is getting the full and accurate picture," said David Stulb, global leader of Ernst & Young's Fraud Investigation & Dispute Services practice.

Dynamic markets are facing new risks that constantly emerge, and the matters that regulators and the public consider inappropriate or fraudulent are evolving, said Shin.

In certain markets, companies are facing investigations about recruiting practices after allegations that offspring of influential figures were hired to win or retain business, the report said.