Challenge 

Our client, a large insurance and financial services firm, had progressed its work on operational resilience and asked Crowe UK to independently assess its alignment with regulatory expectations and recommend targeted enhancements. 

Crowe UK also provided support in preparing and submitting our client’s response to the regulatory update on progress.

Approach

• Reviewed and validated the list of Important Business Services (IBS) identified, alongside the approach and governance in place to define and challenge the criteria set. 
• Assessed the maturity of IBS mapping and identified development opportunities.
• Conducted a comprehensive review of resilience testing, covering a few areas.
  • Testing completed to date, including the identification of any gaps against regulatory requirements.
  • Completeness of scenario library and short- and long-term testing plans, including alignment with related areas of testing (e.g., business continuity and disaster recovery).
  • In-house capabilities for the delivery of more sophisticated testing, including testing of workarounds and integration into future testing plans.
  • Processes in place to manage and implement vulnerability remediation actions identified through testing.
• Evaluated governance and oversight mechanisms to enable effective embedding, ownership, tracking and completion of development and remediation activities.
• Reviewed the latest self-assessment document to confirm all key regulatory questions were addressed.

Outcome

As a result, Crowe identified a range of actionable opportunities to enhance both the effectiveness and efficiency of the operational resilience work, providing our client with a clear roadmap to address gaps and implement improvements. 

This work enabled the business to assure both its board and regulators of its readiness to meet all requirements ahead of their deadline.