In 2004, at the Washington DC headquarters of the FBI, assistant director Chris Swecker convened a press conference. Swecker was trying to highlight the problem of mortgage fraud – one he said “has the potential to be an epidemic”.
With little movement from the financial sector or regulators to address this known “pervasive problem” that was “on the rise”, Swecker held another news conference in 2005. This time he was joined by officials from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).
The message was clear. The FBI had insight into a significant threat, which, if left unaddressed, could create wholesale financial disruption and lasting economic damage. The financial crisis wasn’t a case of unavoidable turmoil, but a case of weak corporate governance and weak risk management.
More than a decade on, the European Union (EU) is devising the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) as a means of preventing anything like that from happening again.
What is DORA?
This is the EU’s recently proposed digital finance package, which is aimed at improving standards within the financial sector. The legislation oversees any…
