With the FCA and PRA's deadline now defined for Financial Services firms to comply with the new Operational Resilience Policy Statement, financial services firms are indicating that they struggle to get board buy-in.
A recent FourthLine LinkedIn survey indicated that 52% of responders are struggling to get board backing for planning and implementing a firm-wide, compliant Operational Resilience programme. Only 29% indicated that they have strong backing from their boards.
The survey result is reflected in the feedback we get when speaking to customers about their own Operational Resilience programmes.
Boards need to decide the time, resources and investment required for this work. They must also sign off the Important Business Services, have input into the tolerable outage time for the business, and what actions are required to prevent exceeding set tolerances.
They must also drive accountability for Operational Resilience with the relevant function head.
Senior Management must be fully involved in oversighting operational resilience, however, with many competing priorities, ensuring appropriate buy-in is proving difficult for many firms.
We've found the key to meeting this challenge is twofold:
1. Educating senior management on their accountabilities and responsibilities under the regulation
2. Creating a proportionate response that ticks the compliance box and demonstrates long term value for the business
How FourthLine can help:
FourthLine is working with several clients to help them achieve compliance and react to the challenges of the new regulation through a mixture of consulting, training, and recruitment.
We found the best way to start the process of board engagement is to invite key board members to our tailored 90-minute Operational Resilience engagement workshop. Find out more about booking a workshop here>
Alternatively, you can get in touch here to learn about our tailored and proportionate responses for Operational Resilience.
For further insights on Operational Resilience, go to our Operational Resilience micro-site
