BofE Urges Payment Firms to Brace for New Operational Resilience Standards

Payment firms are facing a stern warning from the Bank of England (BofE) regarding the imperative need to enhance their readiness for forthcoming ‘operational resilience’ regulations set to take effect next year, as stated in Finextra.

The fresh standards are poised to enforce robust measures within financial market infrastructure (FMI) firms, ensuring minimal disruption to payment systems amidst potential crises such as cyberattacks or severe weather events.

Sasha Mills, the Bank’s executive director for financial market infrastructure, underscored the urgency of preparation in her recent address, stating, «Ahead of the March 2025 deadline, the BofE expects to see FMIs accelerating their efforts to ensure that they have calibrated their tolerance for negative impacts on their important business services, and mapped the key people, processes, technology, facilities, and information needed to deliver these services.»

Mills emphasized the necessity for firms to commence testing their capacity to handle adversities, asserting, «Firms need to start testing their ability to deal with an issue, and the Bank expects to see greater engagement than we have seen thus far between FMIs, their participants, and the wider market, for the calibration of impact tolerances.»

Moreover, Mills highlighted a critical area that demands substantial refinement, noting, «Another area that still requires significant work is the approach and method FMIs use to test disruption to important business services.»

This cautionary directive underscores the gravity of the impending regulations and the imperative for payment firms to expedite their readiness efforts.