Upgrading banks’ capacity to deal with digital risks

Digitalisation is improving banks’ efficiency, but it is also bringing about threats to their operational resilience. Such threats have been compounded by escalating geopolitical tensions, which have been associated with the rising number of cyberattacks reported by banks in recent years. The ECB has long recognised banks’ operational resilience as a key area for improvement in the digital age.
In recent years we have conducted a number of initiatives to help banks meet the challenges in this domain, including targeted reviews and on-site inspections on information technology security and outsourcing, as well as a cyber resilience stress test. More recently, our work in this field has been supported by a new EU regulation designed to keep digital risks in the financial sector in check: the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA), which came into effect in January 2025. I will now outline the supervisory benefits which this regulation has brought about so far and highlight the work still to be done in order to strengthen banks’ capacity to deal with digital risks.
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