The Bank of England (the Bank) has urged UK firms involved in facilitating payments to do more ahead of the March 2025 deadline for its new operational resilience rules.

In a speech at the London Institute of Banking and Finance, executive director of financial market infrastructure at the Bank Sasha Mills said that Financial Market Infrastructures (FMIs), those that form part of the network of systems that make payments possible, still have a lot of work to be done.

The Bank’s upcoming operational resilience policy is designed to protect the wider financial sector and UK economy from the impact of operational disruptions.

Mills said that the Bank expects these firms to “accelerate” their efforts over the next year to ensure they are in a position to tolerate the negative impacts of disruption on their important business services, including mapping the key people, processes, technology, facilities, and information needed to deliver them in times of crisis.

Since announcing the new policy, the Bank has seen less engagement between FMIs, their participants, and the wider market than anticipated, which it also expects companies to rectify over the coming 12 months.

Richard Wilkins, chief risk officer at payments FinTech Cashflows told FStech that industry collaboration is key to achieving operational resilience.

“A unified approach across the financial services sector is imperative in an increasingly uncertain world," continued Wilkins. "Cybercrime is an ever-present danger to us all and its prevention must be a key consideration in how we protect businesses and consumers through our organisational resilience activities.”

During her speech, Mills said that another area that still requires "significant work" is the approach and method FMIs use to test disruption to important business services.

She went on to say that firms should be fully testing their ability to remain within impact tolerances for “extreme but plausible” scenarios.

"We also expect to see FMIs working to ensure that the ‘extreme but plausible’ scenarios they have planned for directly link to the risks and vulnerabilities they face and have mapped," she added.

Cashflows' Richard Wilkins said that he agrees with the Bank's view that confidence in FMI services is "critical to having a vibrant and prosperous economy".

"Both consumers and businesses are increasingly dependent on the payments ecosystem, and considering how many livelihoods and organisations are supported by it, common sense must prevail," he continued. "This means we must plan for the worst - technology is only as strong as its weakest link."

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