By Ian Wilson, Senior Vice President of GRC Business Development EMEA at CLDigital 

Thank you to everyone who joined us at the Financial Services Risk & Compliance Conference in London last week – what a fabulous event!

The one-day industry-led conference and networking exhibition was extremely well attended, with over 140 delegates.

The targeted and tailored agenda was curated with key input from 25+ risk and compliance practitioners from a broad range of financial services firms.

The informative and thought-provoking speaker presentations, and interactive panel discussions covered key hot topics and challenges facing the industry, including:

  • Customer-focused AI strategies to improve efficiency
  • DORA & the latest regulations
  • Forward-looking ESG, climate & sustainability risk
  • Robust & strengthened Operational Resilience
  • The latest threats from technology, fraud & cybersecurity
  • Consumer Duty
  • The crucial influence of geopolitics & global risk
  • Reinforcing risk culture & governance

The speakers provided thought-leadership and insights, regulatory updates and refreshed horizon scanning for agile, resilient, forward-looking risk and compliance strategies.

It is fair to say that there was consistent messaging on the need for firms to implement sophisticated Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC) controls to keep abreast of the ever-changing regulation and threats facing the industry.

In the morning session “Operational Resilience – What Next After The March Deadline?”, debate covered the latest strategies and insights to keep moving forward with robust and risk-conscious contingencies.

The Operational Resilience panel highlighted that now the new PS21/3 regulation has come into full effect, the “regulator will be watching like a hawk”.

After this session, Suman Ziaullah (Head of Technology, Resilience & Cyber, Financial Conduct Authority) echoed that now the new regulation is in place, firms should expect that supervision will focus on their resilience framework and controls. Suman highlighted that firms need to expect the unexpected and that they absolutely need to be prepared for the worst. He urged that robust Operational Resilience frameworks and adequate scenario testing of important business services is a MUST – he made the point that “Operational Resilience must be part of a firms’ DNA, and it is not a box-ticking exercise!”

Following the FCA speaker, our Co-founder, Tejas Katwala, provided a presentation titled “From Compliance to Confidence: Reinventing Risk & Resilience for a ‘Next Anything’ World” –highlighting how forward-thinking institutions are moving beyond static frameworks to real-time, intelligent platforms that unify compliance, ESG, risk, and cyber strategies. 

Tejas’ presentation was extremely well received, and he handed over to the delegate lunch break.

We were delighted to have several firms visit our stand during the lunch break and other networking sessions, to chat with us regarding our GRC solution and how we support FCA regulated firms (and global financial services institutions) with their risk and resilience frameworks.

In addition, it was a pleasure to catch up with some of our existing clients and prospects who also attended the event.

It was a privilege to sponsor this year’s event and connect with so many professionals shaping the future of DORA, operational resilience, compliance, and risk management across financial services.

I’m particularly looking forward to progressing demos with some new prospects who are in the process of revisiting their Business Continuity, DORA & Operational Resilience, Enterprise Risk Management, SMCR and Third-Party Risk Management frameworks.