Digital Operational Resilience in the Financial Sector

This webinar in the Government Relations and Public Policy Briefing Series focuses on the state of play and next steps in the EU's and the UK's efforts to create comprehensive legal and regulatory regimes for digital operational resilience for the financial sector. We will be looking at initiatives focused on addressing the information and technology (ICT) risks by financial entities, such as the recently proposed EU regulation on digital operational resilience for the financial sector (DORA). In-scope financial entities such as investment firms, asset managers, credit institutions but also authorised crypto-asset service providers, will need to comply with extensive ICT risk management requirements, including risks stemming from the use of third-party service providers, such as cloud computing service providers.

As DORA is working its way through the EU legislative process, the key political issues and divisions are becoming clear in both the Council and the European Parliament. Meanwhile, the UK is addressing the similar issues differently, with the recently published Financial Conduct Authority's and Prudential Regulation Authority's policy statements on operational resilience and the relevant rules due to become applicable in March 2022. As a result, the implementation processes, timelines and political pressures in the EU and in the UK are likely to differ significantly. Finally, our risk consulting expert will share some practical views on the financial sector approach to operational resilience.

We will provide a comprehensive overview of the evolving regulatory approach to digital operational resilience for the financial sector in the EU and in the UK, and in particular:

• Overview of the proposed DORA legislation, including scope and key requirements;
• Regulating relationships with third-party ICT service providers and their oversight;
• Key contentious issues in the DORA legislative review, overview of timeline and next steps;
• The UK’s approach to operational resilience and its comparison with the EU process;
• Views on practical approach to operational resilience for financial market participants.