"It’s vital that the financial services sector prioritises operational resilience – just having a firewall simply doesn’t cut it. "
The report has been published ahead of the introduction of GDPR and highlights the need for firms to consider their exposure to risk and operational resilience in today’s digital age.
The report outlines how adopting new technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, cloud computing and distributed ledger technology, will allow the financial services sector to develop new services and platforms to significantly reduce operational costs.
However it warned that a failure to address emerging risks, as well as internal risk management processes, could lead to operational and systemic threats across the sector.
The report concluded that the management of operational risk and safeguarding of data are at the core of sustainable digital finance. For example, the growth of digital outsourcing via the cloud will allow companies to uncover new sources of efficiency, but creates cyber vulnerabilities and emerging risks further ingrained within the business supply chain.
The report calls on the industry to collaborate with technology suppliers as well as domestic and cross-border regulators to create a risk framework that embraces the benefits of digital transformation.
Dan Crisp, director of technology & digital at UK Finance, said: “Given today’s ever-increasing threat of cyber-attacks and data protection violations, it’s vital that the financial services sector prioritises operational resilience – just having a firewall simply doesn’t cut it. The speed and scale of digital transformation makes it essential for new technologies to be integrated safely within existing operating models while minimising risk.
“This isn’t a zero-sum game; these risks are not isolated to specific organisations and financial services firms can harness innovation while simultaneously tackling these new challenges, through the analysis of operating models and building new risk frameworks. The industry is working hard to develop technology and water-tight risk programmes, but only collaboration with policymakers and regulators, both domestic and cross-border, will facilitate success.”
Matthew Hayday, leading partner, global technology services at Parker Fitzgerald, added: “Digital transformation is both inevitable and necessary for the financial industry. A forward-looking agenda should highlight its impact on the industry’s risk landscape.
“To safeguard their organisations through the digital transformation journey, financial firms need to close the gap between their digital aspirations and the reality of their legacy IT estates. Key activities include reducing reliance on legacy systems, de-cluttering redundant systems, and using analytics to predict and quantify the impact of non-financial risks.
“Of particular importance to financial firms is understanding how future regulations can affect their digital transformation strategies, how key technologies can be safely adopted within their operating models, and how their risk frameworks can be adapted to take account of new risks and threat vectors arising from cyber and technology risk, as well as data privacy and protection considerations amplified by PSD2 and GDPR.”
