COVID-19 poses a global challenge impacting every one of us. This unprecedented and sudden pandemic crisis has put the spotlight squarely on financial services firms’ operational resilience, contingency programmes and business continuity planning (BCP), whose viability and robustness are being tested with minimal preparation.

The long-term impact of the pandemic remains unknown, but the fear and uncertainty it is generating, and the immediate disruption it is causing to financial markets and firms’ operations is clear to see.

Is it indeed possible to factor a pandemic into business contingency and BCP preparations? And what might be viewed as a reasonable and proportionate response given the unique challenges such a pandemic pose to financial markets. Unlike natural disasters, technical failures, malicious or criminal acts, or terrorist events, it is a challenge to accurately predict the scale and particularly the duration of such events. 

This paper explores the impact of COVID-19 on regulation with the backdrop of operational resilience, contingency plans and BCP during this challenging time.