FCA offers regulation overview, launches resilience survey
Jessica Rusu, chief data, information and intelligence officer at the UK financial services regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (pictured) outlined the FCA’s views on the impact of recent technology developments on the UK financial sector.
In a speech last month, she said the key questions firms are asking of the FCA are: how it is reducing the burden of compliance and how it is aligning the UK with other international regulatory regimes, and how the FCA is using its database.
Rusu said: “As a tech leader, I am convinced more than ever before that the answers to these questions rest with innovation, AI and digitally enabled regulation. She highlighted the FCA’s new digital sandbox which will support businesses in the development of proofs of concept for products and services and its provision of a “single point of entry” for firms to engage with its Innovation Services team. Full speech available here.
The FCA has also announced the launch of an operational resilience survey designed to help to identify third parties that are critical to the UK financial sector, and evaluate the benefits and risks involved for financial firms.
The survey, launched in conjunction with the Bank of England, is part of a larger project focussed on operational resilience and the role of third parties in the UK financial sector, and follows a discussion paper published in July 2022 (available here). Full article available here.
European Systemic Risk Board publishes cyber report
The European Systemic Risk Board (ESRB), which is responsible for the macroprudential oversight of the EU financial system, has published a report on the development of tools for cyber resilience.
The report identifies cyber incidents as a risk to financial stability and it proposes the following measures:
- The EU-wide adoption of the ESRB’s cyber resilience scenario testing tool (CyRST)
- Development of systemic impact tolerance objectives (SITO) to assess the amount of disruption that the EU financial system can absorb
- Improvement of the effectiveness of existing financial crisis management tools
Full report available here.
Prashant Bhardwaj to head OCC’s new Office of Financial Technology
The US Department of the Treasury bureau that supervises the banking sector, The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), has appointed Prashant Bhardwaj to lead its Office of Financial Technology.
The creation of the Office of Financial Technology was announced in October 2022 as an expansion of the existing Office of Innovation, which the OCC claims will: “Bolster the agency’s expertise and ability to adapt to the rapid pace of technological changes in the banking industry”.
Full article available here.
MAS hosts financial sector cloud forum
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) hosted its inaugural Financial Sector Cloud Resilience Forum for Cloud Service Providers earlier this month, providing a platform for discussion on cloud risk management practices for the financial sector. The Forum was attended by senior financial regulatory authority figures, as well as representatives from Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure.
MAS published three key takeaways from the forum:
- Adoption of public cloud services by financial institutions is increasing.
- Financial Institutions require assistance from cloud service providers to achieve operational resilience.
- The sharing of information between financial firms and cloud service providers is critical.
[Image Source: FCA]
