Zurich | Strengthening Operational Resilience: FINMA Guidance 05/2025 in Practice

Summary

Swiss Risk Association Joint Chapter Event: Regulatory Developments & Non-Financial Risks Chapter

Operational resilience has become a core supervisory priority for FINMA — yet recent findings show that many financial institutions are still at an early stage of maturity.

This Swiss Risk Association event explores FINMA Guidance 05/2025 on Operational Resilience, providing regulatory insights and practical perspectives on how banks, securities firms, and financial market infrastructures can better prevent, withstand, and recover from operational disruptions — including cyber threats — while safeguarding critical functions and financial system stability.

Why this event matters

Based on FINMA’s 2024 industry survey, significant gaps remain across the market:

• 85% of institutions in supervisory categories 1–3 have not yet conducted operational resilience testing
• Only 10% are planning tests, mostly on an annual basis
• 5% have neither tested nor included testing in future plans
• Just 12–15% of institutions have fully integrated resilience components into a comprehensive risk framework
• Around 60% rely on internally developed metrics, with wide variation and limited market consistency

These findings highlight an urgent need to move from awareness to action.

What you will gain

Participants will gain:

• A clear understanding of FINMA’s expectations and regulatory context for operational resilience, as well as insights into the survey results.
• A better understanding of how to define critical functions and impact tolerances that reflect the board’s risk appetite (not just current capabilities).
• Practical insights from industry peers on what works (and what doesn’t) when designing resilience frameworks, especially on how to embed operational resilience into a governance and risk structure.
• How to operationalise testing, define critical functions, and align tolerances with strategic risk appetites.
• Practical next steps to comply with the 2026 implementation timeline and supervisory reviews.

Expert Speakers

• Dusko Ignjic-Gawot, Supervisor Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority FINMA
  Dusko oversees operational risk management and operational resilience within FINMA’s Integrated Risk Expertise Division. In this role, he represents FINMA on operational resilience matters at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the Federal Office for Civil Protection (FOCP), and the Swiss National Bank (SNB). He brings experience from a Big Four firm and the financial industry and holds the Swiss CPA (Dipl. Wirtschaftsprüfer) qualification. In this event, he will provide insights into FINMA Guidance 05/2025, including key survey findings, supervisory expectations, strengths and weaknesses observed across the industry, and elements of best practice.
• Dominik Henn, Executive Director at Julius Baer
  Dominik focuses on risk and control topics within the financial sector, drawing on more than 15 years of experience in operational risk management and internal control systems. Prior to joining Julius Baer, he served as a Senior Manager at EY in Zurich. Earlier in his career, he spent close to ten years at Commerzbank (Frankfurt and Singapore) in various roles, including Head of Operational Risk & Internal Control System. Dominik holds a degree in Business Administration (Diplom-Betriebswirt FH) with a focus on finance and controlling.
• Martin Hofer, CISO at PostFinance
  Martin has been leading information security at PostFinance since 2012. His work focuses on cyber security, payment fraud, business continuity & resilience, security engineering und physical security. He previously served as Data Protection Officer of PostFinance and gained additional experience at the Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner (EDÖB). Martin holds a law degree (Lic. iur) from the University of Zurich and a LL.M. (Informationsrecht) from the University of Oldenburg.

This event will be introduced by Kathrin Anne Meier, Board Member & Non-Financial Risks Chapter Chair of Swiss Risk Association, and will be moderated by Emanuel Hierl, Chapter Advisor of Regulatory Developments of Swiss Risk Association and Manager at zeb-Switzerland.

Who should attend

• Risk and resilience professionals
• Operational risk, IT risk, and cyber risk leaders
• Compliance, governance, and internal control specialists
• Senior management involved in operational resilience strategy

Join us to turn regulatory expectations into actionable resilience, strengthen your operating model, and prepare your institution for future disruptions.

Share your questions ahead of the event

Help us tailor the discussion by sending your questions ahead of the event. Questions can be submitted until 4 May, 18:00. FINMA will address selected topics during the live session.

Send Your Question

Agenda

17:45 – Arrival & Name Tag Collection
18:00 – Welcome and Introduction by Kathrin Anne Meier, SRA Non-Financial Risks Chapter Chair
18:10 – Presentation of Dusko Ignjic-Gawot, FINMA
18:35 – Presentation of Dominik Henn, Julius Baer
18:50 – Presentation of Martin Hofer, PostFinance
19:05 – Q&A Roundtable moderated by Emanuel Hierl
19:25 – Closing by Emanuel Hierl
19:30 – Apéro & Networking

Chapter Event

In our chapter events – access for members only – we present one or more speakers to share knowledge, updates and best practices on a specific risk topic. In small groups of risk professionals you can exchange thoughts and test ideas. More on SRA chapters. This event is hosted by the Regulatory Development and the Non-Financial-Risks Chapter.