The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is officially live as of today, 17th January 2025. The long-awaited act is designed to strengthen the financial sector’s ability to withstand digital risks. It does this by introducing a unified framework for managing IT systems, incident reporting, operational resilience, and third-party risks.
With the compliance deadline now here and fully operational, financial operators must focus on maintaining adherence and building on their operational resilience strategies.
So, what does this mean for financial operators?
DORA’s implementation brings a heightened level of regulatory oversight to financial institutions, not just in the UK but across Europe. Here are some tips on what operators should prioritise moving forward:
Step One – Ongoing Compliance: Organisations must now demonstrate full adherence to DORA’s requirements, including robust IT risk management, operational resilience testing, and streamlined incident reporting protocols.
Step Two – Proactive Monitoring: Continuous monitoring of systems and processes is essential to stay ahead of potential disruptions and ensure compliance remains intact.
Step Three – Management of Third-Parties: Institutions must actively assess and manage risks associated with all third-party tech providers to make sure their resilience aligns with regulatory standards, and they are transparent in demonstrating this.
What Now?
Next up, here are some actions we recommend you consider putting into motion:
- Audit Your Compliance Frameworks
Conduct regular reviews of your systems and processes to ensure they align with DORA’s requirements. Document your findings and address any gaps spotted during this process.
- Enhance Incident Response
Ensure incident reporting protocols are clear, efficient, and capable of meeting regulatory timelines. Regular testing can help towards refining these procedures and identify weak points that may need additional review.
- Make Use of Technology
Technology is an enabler and therefore adopting solutions, such as Wordwatch, will help towards simplifying compliance efforts and consolidating interaction data to make it easier and quicker to access when needed (as well as to manage overall) and reduce IT risk on legacy infrastructure.
- Engage with your Providers
Confirm that all third-party suppliers meet DORA’s resilience standards, create a check-list that they must adhere to, and maintain ongoing dialogue to address emerging risks.
Looking Ahead
As we see it, DORA is not just about compliance, but an opportunity to strengthen your overall digital resilience, while also building trust with clients, stakeholders and suppliers.
By staying proactive, implementing innovative tools, and maintaining a culture of accountability (internally and with third-parties), financial operators can instead turn regulatory adherence into a competitive advantage.
Contact us today to learn how we can support you and your organisation strengthen your digital resilience, and prepare for a secure, compliant future.