Key Takeaways
- • The 11th annual EY/IIF global bank risk management survey reveals that COVID-19 has fundamentally reshaped how banks prioritize resilience across financial, operational, technological, workforce, and environmental dimensions.
- • Banks successfully navigated an 18-month live stress-test environment by implementing remote working mandates and stress-testing previously untested technology systems, demonstrating that decade-long capital and liquidity-building efforts positioned institutions strongly for the crisis.
- • Attracting top talent and equipping risk management teams with advanced technology infrastructure to extract actionable data insights has emerged as critical to sustained institutional success.
- • Resilience now extends beyond traditional financial and operational risk to encompass technological resilience (driven by accelerated digital transformation), workforce resilience (focused on employee well-being), and societal/environmental resilience (addressing diversity, equity, and climate change impacts).
- • Banks must maintain elevated resilience levels to withstand ongoing disruption and change as the post-pandemic operating environment stabilizes.
Summary
The 11th annual EY/IIF global bank risk management survey demonstrates that the COVID-19 pandemic has fundamentally redefined resilience as a top strategic priority for banking institutions globally. According to the survey, many banks have expressed surprise at their operational resilience during the crisis, successfully implementing widespread remote working arrangements while simultaneously stress-testing technology systems under unprecedented demand conditions. Throughout an 18-month period of continuous operational stress, financial institutions maintained uninterrupted customer access to products and services—a performance that reflects the cumulative benefit of a decade-long regulatory and strategic focus on building higher-quality capital and liquidity buffers.
The pandemic's stress-test environment has exposed resilience requirements across multiple, interconnected risk dimensions. Beyond traditional financial and operational resilience, banks now confront technological resilience challenges stemming from accelerated digital transformation initiatives. Workforce resilience has gained prominence as institutions increasingly prioritize employee well-being and retention. Simultaneously, societal and environmental resilience have elevated banks' strategic focus on diversity and equity initiatives, as well as climate change exposure assessment and mitigation.
The survey underscores two critical success factors for banking institutions moving forward. First, attracting and retaining top-tier talent within risk management functions is essential. Second, equipping risk teams with sophisticated technology platforms and data infrastructure to extract actionable insights from complex datasets has become a prerequisite for institutional resilience. As regulatory environments continue to evolve and market disruption accelerates, banks must sustain and strengthen their resilience capabilities to navigate an increasingly complex operating environment.
The pandemic's stress-test environment has exposed resilience requirements across multiple, interconnected risk dimensions. Beyond traditional financial and operational resilience, banks now confront technological resilience challenges stemming from accelerated digital transformation initiatives. Workforce resilience has gained prominence as institutions increasingly prioritize employee well-being and retention. Simultaneously, societal and environmental resilience have elevated banks' strategic focus on diversity and equity initiatives, as well as climate change exposure assessment and mitigation.
The survey underscores two critical success factors for banking institutions moving forward. First, attracting and retaining top-tier talent within risk management functions is essential. Second, equipping risk teams with sophisticated technology platforms and data infrastructure to extract actionable insights from complex datasets has become a prerequisite for institutional resilience. As regulatory environments continue to evolve and market disruption accelerates, banks must sustain and strengthen their resilience capabilities to navigate an increasingly complex operating environment.
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