Parker Fitzgerald with UK Finance

Digital transformation is both inevitable and necessary for the financial industry. But the explosion in banks’ use of digital technologies means that the traditional ways of managing and supervising risk are outmoded. A forward-looking agenda should highlight the impact of digital transformation on the industry’s risk landscape.

In 2018, we identified UK Finance as one of our strategic thought leadership partners. As the trade association representing more than 250 financial firms in the UK, UK Finance has a unique position as a market-leading commentator on banking and payments issues.

The centrepiece of this collaboration has been a joint-branded report, titled Sustainable Financial Services in the Digital Age, which explores how financial institutions, technology firms, and the regulatory community could work together to proactively manage operational resilience in today’s digital age. This partnership combines the perspective of UK Finance as the leading voice for financial firms in the UK, and that of Parker Fitzgerald as a trusted consulting partner to global financial institutions.

Published in May 2018 just days before the introduction of General Data Privacy Regulation (GDPR), the report views the safeguarding of data as core to the future of financial services and heralds the industry’s thinking on the topic of operational resilience. With use cases, risk implications and regulatory responses associated with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI), the Cloud, and the Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) in financial services, this report offers practical suggestions for industry leaders on integrating key technologies safely within existing operating models and for regulators on safeguarding operational resilience of the financial system.

Progressing industry debate on operational resilience is the most prominent impact of the report. This is partially achieved through securing coverage across more than ten financial and national print media outlets, including a dedicated write-up in the Financial Times, working collaboratively with Caroline Binham, Regulation Editor. This piece alone reached 186,018 readers.

The report creates an effective platform to engage with regulators on this important topic at a time when regulatory focus has shifted from capital adequacy to operational resilience. Within Parker Fitzgerald, the content has been key to informing our offerings around technology innovations and refreshing thinking on technology change programmes.