Regulators order banks to raise game on IT issues

The National Cyber Security Centre in Westminster is designed to improve Britain's fight against cyberattacks and act as an operational nerve centre
The National Cyber Security Centre in Westminster is designed to improve Britain's fight against cyberattacks and act as an operational nerve centre
CARL COURT/GETTY IMAGES

British banks have been given three months to come up with details of how they plan to tackle internal IT glitches and cyber attacks.

The rising number of serious problems with banks’ IT systems led the Bank of England and the Financial Conduct Authority to order the financial services sector to report back on their exposure to risks and how they would respond to outages..

The special response unit representing the Treasury and financial regulators is being deployed more and more often to react to technology failures and deliberate attacks attempting fraud.

The Authorities Response Framework (ARF) was rarely called upon a few years ago, but its activity has increased markedly in the wake of a string of difficult events at banks.

These include the