UK Treasury Committee report warns that the current level and frequency of disruption and consumer harm is unacceptable.

By Carl Simon Fernandes, Nicola Higgs, Fiona M. Maclean, Christian F. McDermott, Rob Moulton, Andrew C. Moyle, Stuart Davis, and Charlotte Collins

On 28 October 2019, the Treasury Committee published a report on IT failures in the financial services sector. The report sets out the findings from the Treasury Committee’s inquiry, which was launched following a number of high-profile and significant IT incidents. (See Senior MP Calls for Regulatory Crackdown on Banks’ IT Systems: 3 Things You Can do to Prepare.) Rather than looking into specific failures, the inquiry looked more holistically at why such incidents are becoming more frequent, how firms should be guarding against and responding to these incidents, and the role of the regulators in preventing and mitigating the impact of these incidents through their rules.

The report looks at various different aspects of the issues surrounding IT failures, including the nature of IT incidents and their common causes, the role of the regulators, and emerging risks to operational resilience.