Operational Resilience:Industry Benchmarking

In a series of conversations with financial executives across Canada, we discussed the current state of operational resilience planning and their organizations’ plans for the future. The primary challenges mentioned were a high dependency on third (and fourth) party providers, increased organizational complexity, getting appropriate buy-in and focus across the organization, and regional variations in regulatory requirements. To address these challenges, and heighten their resilience, organizations are finding and pursuing several opportunities, which include mechanisms for identifying and prioritizing their critical services, as well as leveraging a global workforce to provide distributed capabilities. Organizations also discussed approaches for dealing with differing regulations globally. In terms of resilience structure, organizations have looked at their governance frameworks and ensuring they are fit for purpose, as well as utilizing stress and scenario testing to assess their capabilities. An effective training program underpins a solid resilience plan, and organizations discussed their approaches here as well. In a mid- to post-pandemic world, an effective resilience strategy has been, and will continue to be, integral to the success of financial institutions. The current environment provides a compelling reason for firms to bolster their capabilities.