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With less than three months of the MAS’ transition period remaining, time is running out for firms to ensure they comply with the updated Business Continuity Management Guidelines and have an audit plan in place.
Complying with the updated BCM guidelines
While not a new concept for regulated firms, the updated guidelines provide strengthened principle-based guidance and practices for financial institutions to embed in their BCM framework and bolster their operational resilience, covering areas including:
- Critical business services and functions
- Service recovery time objective
- Dependency mapping
- Concentration risk
- Continuous review and improvement
- Testing
- Audit
- Incident and crisis management
- Responsibilities of Board and Senior Management
Are you on track to meet the June deadline?
By the 6th June; financial institutions will be expected to have updated their BCM framework and have an audit plan in place, spanning the overall framework and each critical business service, with the expectation of audits being completed by June 2024.
The audit plan should provide a comprehensive overview of the approach and scope, highlighting how the audit will:
- Provide an independent assessment of the adequety and effectiveness of your BCM framework across each critical business service
- Examine risks highlighted from risk assessments, previous audit findings and relevant incidents
- Assess the operational preparedness of BCM processes and procedures
As the regulator has made clear they do not expect to see a “one size fits all” approach and given the short timescales, firms should be starting this process sooner rather than later to ensure expectations are met, which may vary greatly depending on the size and scope of regulated activities.
How we can help
As the deadline approaches, we’re actively supporting clients to:
- Plan and conduct BCM audits,
- Set out their broader BCM framework
- Conduct business impact, threat and risk assessments and put in place appropriate crisis management and continuity plans.
You can find out more about our support here or get in touch below.
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