PricewaterhouseCoopers has reported a 20 percent drop in economic crime in Russia since 2014. PwC links it to anti-corruption developments in the country and the enhanced role of internal audit within organizations.

 “Though economic crime is still a major issue for businesses in Russia our survey shows a positive trend – a drop in economic crime in Russia by 20 percent,” PwC Russia Partner Jeremy Outen said in the press release.

According to the report, 48 percent of companies and organizations in Russia have experienced an economic crime in the past two years.

“This is significantly lower than the result for 2014 (60 percent), but, nonetheless, it is higher than the respective global result (36 percent),” said PwC.

The auditor also reports 65 percent of respondents in Russia said they perform fraud risk assessments at least once a year, which is higher than the 51 percent globally.

The most common type of fraud in Russia remains misappropriation, procurement fraud, bribery and corruption. While cybercrime has moved up to second position in the world, it’s only fourth in Russia.

Asset misappropriation is still the most common fraud in Russia (72 percent) and globally (64 percent).

The PwC survey in Russia covers private companies (34 percent), publicly traded companies (59 percent) and government entities (three percent).

The 44 percent of respondents that reported lost funds lost less than $100,000 in the past two years. A quarter of them suffered losses between $100,000 and $1 million with 23 percent reporting more than $1 million.