It’s been published – the FCA has published their long-awaited Policy Statement on Operational Resilience. How will your firm be affected?
Ensuring the UK financial sector is operationally resilient is important for consumers, firms and financial markets.
Operational disruptions can cause wide-reaching harm to consumers and pose a risk to market integrity, threaten the viability of firms and cause instability in the financial system. And the disruption caused by Covid-19 has shown why it is critical for firms to understand the services they provide and invest in their resilience.
Together with the Bank of England and Prudential Regulation Authority, the Financial Conduct Authority has published a shared final policy summary on these requirements to strengthen operational resilience in the financial services sector.
Who does it affect?
Banks
Building societies
PRA-designated investment firms
Insurers
Recognised Investment Exchanges
Enhanced scope SM&CR firms
Entities authorised and registered under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 or Electronic Money Regulations 2011
While this Policy Statement is aimed at larger firms, it is very clear that the FCA expects smaller firms to take on board the key tenets and apply them as appropriate to their businesses.
Timeline overview
By 31 March 2022, firms must have:
identified their important business services
set impact tolerances for the maximum tolerable disruption
carried out mapping and testing to a level of sophistication necessary to do so
identified any vulnerabilities in their operational resilience
By 31 March 2025, firms must have:
performed mapping and testing so that they are able to remain within impact tolerances for each important business service
made the necessary investments to enable them to operate consistently within their impact tolerances
What next?
Aldbury International are very well placed to help firms through this process. To discover how we can help your organisation comply with the new Operational Resilience policy from the FCA, contact the team on 0203 475 2953 or email enquiries@aldburyinternational.com.
For the full FCA Policy Statement: PS21/3 Building operational resilience | FCA
Our response to the statement: Response to FCA’s Policy Statement on Operational Resilience