In this busy period of regulatory change, we explore trends across financial services firms in the UK and dissect the risk challenges whilst sharing observations on the direction of investment and focus for 2024.
We are delighted to share our key data and insights from our recent survey. The comprehensive survey, conducted amongst 400 key UK financial organisations, reveals an industry landscape increasingly impacted by geopolitical risks, significant investment in operational resilience and the major opportunities presented by technological and data strategy alignment across the sector.
Top findings
- Geopolitical uncertainty (26%) and liquidity/access to capital (24%) were found to be the top two critical risks for the UK.
- Core areas of the ERM framework remain subject to manual processes, such as control evaluation and monitoring (24%), incident/loss event management (22%), policy management (21%) and risk assessment (21%).
- Market remains highly focused on developing operational resilience capabilities. More than half of those surveyed (59%) have assigned significant budget for the integration of operational resilience with their enterprise risk management framework.
- Regulatory focus has been on third party risk management and customer outcomes in 2023, therefore, it is not a surprise that 68% of UK financial organisations say they will be significantly increasing investment in third party risk management (TPRM) solutions in their ERM programme over the next 12 months.
Expert commentary
 |
This survey paints a picture of a financial services industry at a crossroads, with technology playing a pivotal role in navigating these changes. Firms are increasingly seeking to align risk management disciplines with technological advancements to build sustainable, resilient, and efficient operational frameworks. We urge organisations to embrace these technology-led changes to not only mitigate risks but also to harness new opportunities for growth and innovation. Gary Lynam, Managing Director EMEA at Protecht. |
|
|
|
|
An interesting and thought-provoking survey. Geopolitical risk is certainly a key emerging risk presenting many uncertainties and is on Metro Bank’s emerging risk register, as is AI, for which we are starting to explore the benefits as well as the risks. In line with the results, Metro Bank is continuing to enhance its robust approach to meeting operational resilience requirements and monitoring the risks related to our third parties, for which it is important to have a ‘joined up’ approach.” Sean Titley, Director of Enterprise and Operational Risk, Metro Bank |
Methodology
The research was conducted via online survey by Censuswide in August 2023 and involved an invitation-only audience targeting financial organisations ranging in size from 250 to 5,000 employees, contributing a total of 400 UK-based responses.
