It is unsurprising that UK financial regulators have recently decided to introduce a specific operational resilience function under the Senior Managers and Certification Regime, SMF 24, which, for the first time, will enable regulators to hold senior management specifically responsible for any failings in operational resilience. At a recent hearing of the Treasury Select Committee, it was suggested that operational resilience would become a ‘third pillar’ of regulation, alongside prudential and conduct regulation. The decision to introduce SMF 24 reflects the fact that, over a decade on from the financial crisis, the focus of regulators has been steadily shifting from pure operational risk management towards operational resilience.

Recent incidents, such as high-profile outages and service disruptions, have had a dramatic impact on both retail and business customers, which in many instances have resulted in increased mistrust in the financial markets and, ultimately, in financial loss. 

It is easy to see why resilience is now such a challenge. In addition to rising media, political and regulatory attention on incidents and crises, the financial services operating environment is also changing rapidly. Banks and financial institutions in general face ever more complex pressures, coming both from internal practices – such as having to upgrade legacy technology systems, cost and resource pressures and updating internal practices – as well as external stresses – namely technical innovations including FinTech, changing customer expectations, geo-political developments (such as BREXIT), increased cyber threats, more stringent operating regulations and broader eco-systems.

Firms and regulators alike have made efforts to assess and improve operational resilience in recent years, from the Prudential Regulation Authority’s requirements for resolution planning, to the Financial Conduct Authority’s ‘deep dives’, to joint regulatory forensic cyber testing (CBEST), heavily promoted and supported by the Bank of England.

The introduction of SMF24 has escalated operational resilience to a board level issue that all financial institutions are now having to address on both a strategic and practical level, as the potential consequences of an operational failure will have substantial regulatory consequence both for the firm and for senior managers.

Join us in central London on November 18th at The Operational Resilience in the Financial Sector Forum. 

The Forum will look at how threats and challenges have become even more marked, given a hostile cyber-environment and large-scale technological changes, and how, consequently, operational resilience has become a vital part of protecting the financial system, institutions and consumers alike.

Featuring a speaker panel of quite exceptional quality, the programme will focus on how to embed effective operational resilience and risk management practices in the rapidly evolving regulatory and technological landscape, whilst overcoming new risks and challenges linked to automation, innovation and digital disruption.

Through an unparalleled panel of speakers and panellists you will:

• Benefit from an update on the UK Government’s take on operational resilience in 2019 & 2020
• Gain an understanding of senior managers’ increased responsibility under the SMCR in respect of actions that should be taken to minimise operational risk
• Be able to ensure effective operational resilience and risk management practices in a rapidly evolving regulatory and technological landscape
• Better understand the future of a potential UK-EU Trade Deal: implications for operational risk within the financial sector
• Hear how to bridge the skill gap in a fast-moving environment: how to build internal resilience through people management in order to sustain customers’ expectations
• Understand how to overcome new risks and challenges deriving from automation, innovation and digital disruption
• Learn more about the future of operational resilience: cyber-resilience, cyber-security, data breaches and emerging threats 
• Manage risks related to third (and fourth) party outsourcing, including cloud-based services
• Develop an effective oversight function to meet best practice and retain effective accountability and meet expectations of best practice governance
• See how to safeguard the delivery of business services by using stress testing of operational resilience
• Gain a better understanding of the complexity and interdependencies between financial services as a whole, particularly between clearing houses, exchanges and payment systems