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Moving beyond the initial self-assessment
The recent report from the FCA regarding operational resilience serves as a diagnostic tool for firms. Many organisations initially approached these requirements as a documentation exercise to meet immediate regulatory deadlines. However, the supervisor is now looking for deeper evidence that firms truly understand their critical dependencies. If your organisation cannot demonstrate a granular, evidenced record of the processes underpinning your important business services, you remain exposed to regulatory scrutiny and operational instability.
The importance of evidenced workflow
A recurring theme in the FCA findings is the lack of precision in identifying dependencies. It is not enough to maintain a high-level map of an IT system. Firms must understand the specific people, manual processes, and third-party relationships that ensure a service remains within its impact tolerance. We advocate for process mapping without event logs to ensure your records reflect the actual experience of your employees rather than what is captured in IT system logs.
Aligning resilience with your AI strategy
Many firms struggle to reconcile the need for stable operational resilience with the desire to deploy new technologies. Before automating any step, you must verify that the process is resilient. We assist firms in this transition through our AI opportunity assessment, which identifies where automation can be safely introduced without compromising your ability to meet impact tolerances. Understanding where AI belongs within your firm is a prerequisite for long-term operational success.
Third-party oversight
The regulator is increasingly focused on how third-party relationships could threaten your resilience. Whether you are dealing with cloud service providers or outsourced fund administrators, your DORA operational resilience process mapping must extend to these external entities. If you cannot identify the human elements of your third-party workflows, you cannot effectively test your impact tolerance during a failure.
Building a foundation for the future
Operational resilience is a measure of your firm's AI readiness. If you cannot describe your processes clearly, you are not ready to automate them. To discuss how your firm can align its current operational documentation with these updated supervisory expectations, you can book a consultation or reach out to us at hello@pinpointproof.com.