If you’re a UK financial firm operating in or serving the EU, the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) now applies to you, whether you like it or not.
In force since January 2025, DORA sets a new EU-wide standard for how financial institutions manage ICT (information and communication technology) risks, report incidents, test resilience, and oversee third-party providers.
UK regulators, the FCA, PRA, and Bank of England, have already signaled alignment with DORA’s principles, meaning most UK institutions will follow the same playbook in practice.
The regulation shifts the focus from paperwork to performance. It’s no longer enough to show you have security controls; you need to prove they actually work when things go wrong. For banks, insurers, investment firms, and ICT providers, that means embedding operational resilience into the heart of governance, technology, and vendor management.
What the DORA financial services regulation is
DORA is the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act. It ensures that financial institutions can withstand and recover from ICT disruptions such as cyberattacks, system outages, and vendor failures.
For decades, regulators focused on capital and liquidity. DORA introduces a new focus: digital continuity. The question is no longer “Are you solvent?” but “Can your systems keep running when things break?”
This regulation requires financial firms to prove that their technology and their third-party providers are resilient enough to maintain service even during disruption.
Key requirements for financial institutions
Implementation and RTS timeline
DORA officially took effect in January 2025, but its details are still unfolding. The Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) that specify how firms must comply are being released throughout 2025. These RTS explain the exact methods for reporting incidents, managing ICT providers, and structuring registers of information. Keeping up with these updates is essential for ongoing compliance.
Incident reporting
Under DORA, firms must detect, classify, and report major ICT incidents quickly—sometimes within just a few hours. Reports must use harmonised templates so regulators across the EU receive consistent data.
For global or UK-based institutions, this means integrating DORA’s reporting obligations with existing FCA operational resilience rules. It’s not just about compliance; it’s about coordination.
ICT risk management
DORA places ICT risk management squarely at the board level. Senior leadership must take responsibility for resilience, not delegate it to IT. Institutions are expected to:
- Integrate ICT risk into overall governance structures
- Conduct resilience testing on critical systems
- Regularly review and improve their ICT frameworks
Resilience is now a leadership priority, not a back-office concern.
Outsourcing and subcontracting
Financial institutions depend on an ecosystem of ICT providers. DORA requires that responsibility for resilience stays inside the institution, even when services are outsourced.
Contracts must define responsibilities clearly. Oversight must include subcontractors, not just direct suppliers. Exit strategies must exist for all critical ICT arrangements.
At Copla, our DORA Register Handler helps financial firms manage this process by creating structured, regulator-ready registers that automatically map third-party relationships and subcontractors.
Register of information
Firms must maintain a complete, standardised Register of Information covering ICT providers, systems, and dependencies. These registers must use XML or CSV formats to ensure comparability across the EU.
For large, complex organisations, this is a major operational challenge. Automating it is the only scalable solution.
The UK perspective
Even though the UK isn’t part of the EU, DORA still affects many UK firms. Those that operate in the EU or provide ICT services to EU-based financial institutions are directly within its scope.
And even for firms focused purely on the UK, alignment is coming. The Bank of England, PRA, and FCA are implementing their own operational resilience frameworks that mirror DORA’s structure.
In practice, DORA financial services UK is already here. Firms that prepare early will adapt faster and face fewer compliance surprises later.
How financial institutions can prepare
Common challenges
Most firms share similar hurdles:
- Mapping complex ICT dependencies across global operations
- Aligning reporting frameworks across jurisdictions
- Managing vendor and subcontractor oversight at scale
Practical steps for resilience
To prepare effectively:
- Conduct a gap analysis against DORA requirements.
- Build an incident playbook with clear escalation and communication paths.
- Strengthen vendor contracts and monitoring with DORA-aligned clauses.
- Automate reporting and register updates to reduce manual effort.
These steps do more than meet regulatory expectations—they build resilience that protects customers and operations alike.
Tools to support compliance
At Copla, we help financial institutions turn regulatory work into operational strength.
Our micro-tools, such as the DORA Register Handler and Incident Workflow Manager, help automate key tasks:
- Creating and maintaining regulator-ready ICT registers
- Streamlining incident reporting workflows
- Reducing manual documentation and oversight workloads
You can find more about DORA’s official framework on the European Commission’s DORA page.
Why DORA is a strategic opportunity
DORA isn’t just another compliance framework—it’s a chance to embed resilience into everyday operations.
By aligning early with DORA financial services requirements, UK firms can:
- Minimise downtime during disruptions
- Strengthen trust with customers and regulators
- Gain a competitive advantage by demonstrating continuity under pressure
At Copla, we help turn compliance obligations into resilience strategies. Meeting DORA requirements isn’t just about avoiding penalties. It’s about proving that your systems, and your business, can stay strong, even when the unexpected happens.
