Operational resilience is the next phase in the evolution of financial services regulatory policy.
Regulators’ expectations are increasing – but it’s an evolution rather than a revolution; firms – more specifically firms’ senior managers – must “join the dots” across a range of practical risk management and governance activities.
To help keep you up to date on the upcoming regulatory expectations, we are pleased to announce the launch of our new #OperationalResilience hub. Continue reading
On 5 February 2021, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published a report titled ‘Implementing Technology Change’, which sets out findings from its review into how financial services firms manage technology change, the impact of change failures, and industry practices to help reduce the impact of incidents resulting from change management. Continue reading
On 25 October, the Bank of England’s Fintech Director, Tom Mutton, set out the Bank’s approach to fintech during the Covid crisis and beyond in a virtual speech to the 2nd Bund Summit on digital currency, fintech and inclusive finance. Continue reading
On 7 April 2020, the FCA released its Business Plan for 2020/21. The FCA had planned to focus on the areas identified in its Sector Views published on 18 February 2020 (see our blog post here), but recognises that its work will be fundamentally reshaped by the impact of COVID-19.
Aware that the current circumstances create the need for it to both respond to change and initiate it, the FCA outlined plans for transforming fundamentally the way the FCA works and regulates, with a view to becoming a more efficient and effective regulator.
On 18 February, the FCA published its Sector Views for 2020. Described as its view of how the markets it regulates are performing, this “performance” is inevitably framed by its role as the UK’s conduct regulator. Sector Views also looks at how the financial environment is changing, through a range of different lenses – the FCA’s objectives, macroeconomics, the political environment, and societal and technological developments. Continue reading
On 20 January 2020, the Constitutional and Mainland Affairs Bureau (CMAB) together with the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data (Privacy Commissioner), published a consultation paper raising important data protection issues and proposing possible amendments to the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance (Cap. 486) (PDPO), after having reviewed the existing data protection regime in Hong Kong. These include possibly introducing a mandatory data breach notification mechanism, requiring data users to specify a retention period for personal data collected, raising the sanctioning powers of the Privacy Commissioner as well as potentially making data processors more accountable.
** This post was updated on 17 March 2020 to reflect the FCA’s publication of information for firms on Coronavirus (Covid-19) response and further updated on 23 March 2020 to reflect the Bank of England’s press release regarding supervisory and prudential policy changes **
On 5 December 2019, the Bank of England (BoE), the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) released a number of publications on operational resilience, marking the launch of a consultation phase which will inform how the UK authorities seek to embed the consideration of operational resilience into the regulatory framework.
