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Operational Resilience

From April 2021 to December 2024, Sasha also worked in a permanent role in a bank as Documentation Manager. She co-ordinated the strategy and delivered all documentation on Operational Resilience.

Understanding Operational Resilience (OpRes)

The requirement by the FCA and PRA is for all financial institutions to deliver proof of Operational Resilience by March 2025: “the ability of firms and the financial system to absorb and adapt to shocks, rather than contribute to them”. OpRes involves preventing, adapting to, responding to, recovering from, and learning from operational disruptions.

Delivering Actions and Documentation to Prove OpRes

Sasha was able to complete all the required OpRes actions and documentation early, by December 2024.

Operational Resilience (OpRes) Self-Assessment

Sasha created a comprehensive OpRes Self-Assessment document to deliver to the PRA. This proved how the bank:

• Approached OpRes from 2021 to date and the type of governance applied
• Reassessed, identified, and documented all of the bank's services
• Identified, ranked, and rated Important Business Services (IBSs)
• Assigned Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Impact Tolerances (iTols)
• Documented mapping and dependencies for the IBSs, covering Resources, Facilities, Suppliers, Infrastructure, Data, and Customer Segment
• Documented and coordinated annual governance for Business Continuity Plans (BCPs), Disaster Recovery Plans (DRPs), and Continuity Scenario Plans (CSPs)
• Identified Vulnerabilities and demonstrated OpRes by using BCPs and Testing (via DR Exercises and IBS Scenario Tests of increasing complexity)
• Documented the communications strategy and assurance activity on OpRes work
• Performed a Gap Analysis and updates for new 2024 PRA and FCA Requirements
• Implemented an OpRes Control Framework with evidence linked to Jira tickets

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) Framework

The BCP Framework was a sister document to the OpRes Self-Assessment and contained the full BCPs, DRPs, and CSPs with links to a wealth of information on the Intranet: Service Overviews, Spaghetti Maps, and catalogues of resources, suppliers, etc.

Criticality Calculator

The Criticality Calculator was a bespoke spreadsheet tool for calculating the IBS rank and ratings, which were then published with Service Priorities and Impact Tolerances.

Customer Journeys

The Customer Journeys documents for Current and Credit Card Accounts listed every journey available to customers, showing the method, any substitutable methods, IBS, customer segment, high levels steps, and annual governance.