FMA Check-In on Licensed Providers’ Operational Resilience

The FMA’s Operational Resilience team is undertaking a “significant survey” looking at the operational resilience of licensed market service providers, including financial advice providers and insurers.

In an article on the authority’s website, acting team manager Jocelyn McKernan, says one of the priorities, outlined in the Financial Conduct Report for 2025/26 “…is to deepen our understanding of operational resilience practices across licensed market service providers, including related risks and harms.”

She says to support that, the team is asking firms a series of questions on their:

• Governance
• Outsourcing arrangements
• Incident management
• Business continuity plans
• Technology systems
• Information security
• Mandatory notification practices

“Operational resilience is essential to the stability and continuity of financial services. Licensed market service providers are expected to maintain robust systems, controls and governance arrangements that support operational resilience. We expect the findings to better inform our regulation of operational resilience.”

The FMA says the Operational Resilience team is surveying seven sectors, the five this financial year are:

• Insurers
• Peer-to-peer lending
• Crowdfunding
• Derivatives issuers
• Discretionary investment management services

In the 2026/2027 financial year it will survey:

• Financial advice providers
• Managed investment schemes

McKernan says it will publish a thematic review report “…to comprehensively cover our insights from the sector surveys. But we will also be releasing updates along the way to provide timely key insights to industry.”

She notes peer-to-peer lending and crowdfunding have completed their surveys and the authority sent surveys to derivatives issuers earlier this month.

It will send surveys to insurance and discretionary investment management services in the new year.