Regulators have given UK banks a three-month deadline to demonstrate their “operational resilience” in the event of IT breakdowns and cyber-attacks.
The Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) have told financial services firms to report back by 5th October on their exposure to risks and how they would respond to technology-related outages.
The moves follows TSB’s high-profile IT crisis and Visa’s system failure in the UK and Europe.
In a joint statement issued by FCA chief executive Andrew Bailey and Bank of England deputy governor Jon Cuncliffe, the pair said: “Operational disruption can impact financial stability, threaten the viability of individual firms and financial market infrastructures, or cause harm to consumers and other market participants in the financial system.”
The watchdogs say that banks should have backup plans in place to allow them to recover fully within two working days.