Welcome to this the fifth edition in our series of surveys on directors’ liabilities, brought to you by the international law firm Allen & Overy LLP and the global advisory broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson.

We began this exercise back in 2011 when – fresh from the throes of the global financial crisis – directors and high-ranking executives in public and privately-held corporations were feeling particularly exposed to liability and subject to an unprecedented degree of scrutiny. That said, the incidence of actual criminal, civil or even regulatory proceedings against individuals was still vanishingly small. To plug that perceived accountability gap the last six years have seen a steady increase in laws and regulations aimed at senior executives.