How resilience drives growth in financial services
When it comes to resilience in financial services, it can sometimes be viewed as a compliance necessity rather than a commercial or strategic component of a business.
Resilience is not a box ticking exercise to be looked at once a year. It is a continuous plan that should be managed, maintained, and improved upon.
With technology now central to the running of most firms, it makes the role of operational and cyber resilience even more important. Firms that have robust resiliency plans will bounce back quickest from an incident.
The recent HM Treasury ‘The Value of Resilience’ Report July 2026 stated: “Organisations that invest effectively in resilience are better placed to recover quickly from disruption, maintain trust and sustain performance.”
It should be viewed as a key part of your growth strategy, to reduce uncertainty, ensure business stability, and keep trust amongst shareholders and clients.
You need to ask yourself if your business could operate for 24 hours without its critical technology? Payments, email, authentication, client portals, trading/investment platforms, data, communications tools, third-party suppliers - could your business keep operating if any of them fail?
A good example of this comes from the Global Cybersecurity Outlook 2026 report from the World Economic Forum. It found that when it comes to third party suppliers in financial services, the top supply chain risk was the lack of visibility into the extended supply chain. The second risk was having too great dependence on critical third-party suppliers. This shows more work needs to be done in those areas, and the organisations that have a plan for this risk will be more resilient if any third-party issues were to occur.
Another major risk is the threat of AI-generated cyber-attacks; businesses need to make sure they can keep running in the event of a breach. The Bank of England’s 2026 H2 Systemic Risk Survey found that 75% of UK banks, insurers and asset managers surveyed thought that cyber-attacks were a top risk to the financial system. 67% stated that a cyberattack would be the most challenging risk to manage. Those that are prepared for a breach and have a plan for quick recovery will be more likely to limit the damage and get back to business quickly, keeping data and reputation intact.
Key resilience questions you should be thinking about:
- Is your tech estate as resilient as you think it is?
- How quickly could you recover from a cyber breach?
- Do you regularly test your DR plans?
- Do you know where all your critical data lives?
- Which legacy systems are business critical?
- Could you operate if a key supplier disappeared tomorrow?
- Can you provide evidence of your resilience with the regulator?
We know from experience that resilience can be an uncomfortable subject, and one that often slips down the priority list. Our aim is simply to help make sure your business is as resilient as possible, so it can handle whatever unexpected events come its way. The firms that thrive and grow will be those willing to take an honest look at where their gaps are, and then put a clear plan in place to address them.
If you’d like a confidential conversation about strengthening your resilience plans, get in touch with the team today.