ISSA Operational Resilience Questionnaire (ISSA ORQ)

ISSA publishes its Operational Resilience Questionnaire for the Securities Services Industry

ISSA is delighted to share its newly created Operational Resilience Questionnaire (ISSA ORQ). Designed for use by the Securities Services industry, the ISSA ORQ will be an invaluable tool to help organizations to assess their own critical functions and operational readiness as well as that of their counterparties and suppliers.

What is the ISSA ORQ?

Operational Resilience enables organizations to predict, navigate, adapt and recover from disruption to their critical functions. To assess operational resilience, organizations need both to request and to provide evidence and attestation around operational resilience standards. The ISSA ORQ is a tool that can assist organizations in completing that assessment. It is designed specifically for use by organizations involved in Securities Services and is based on the Basel Committee of Banking Supervision (BCBS) operational resilience principles. It has also been reviewed against other standards and principles to ensure the guidance is global.

Why is the ISSA ORQ needed?

Whilst there are many operational resilience questionnaires around, there is currently no single “industry-wide” methodology for demonstrating operational resilience that caters for the Securities Services industry. Furthermore, and specifically, there is currently no means for responding in a consistent, efficient and sustainable manner to due diligence questions on the topic of Operational Resilience.

Who should use the ISSA ORQ?

The ISSA ORQ is designed for use by Securities Services organizations, such as those providing clearing, securities settlement, securities safekeeping, asset servicing and funds distribution as well as third-party suppliers of operational and technology services to the Securities Services industry. Depending on an organization’s regulatory or supervisory oversight, the ISSA ORQ can be supplemented with other information. The ISSA ORQ can therefore be used on a stand-alone basis or incorporated it into an organization’s broader operational resilience policies.

What are the key benefits of the ISSA ORQ?

The ISSA ORQ provides multiple benefits to the Securities Services industry through:

• Enabling organizations to assess the operational resilience of themselves, their counterparties or other Securities Service Providers

• Using appropriately considered operational resilience principles and a consistent and standardized methodology

• Providing organizations with the information they need to understand how they mitigate and can rapidly – but safely – recover from the impact of such significant, potentially harmful, operational issues

To ensure that the ISSA ORQ remains relevant and effective, the document will be reviewed by ISSA on an ongoing basis. Therefore, if you have any questions or feedback, please contact ISSA at karen.zeeb@issanet.org.