PRA publishes policy statements on OCIR policy

In October 2020, BoE and PRA consulted on a package of proposals relating to operational continuity in resolution (OCIR) policy and the May 2020 resolution measures, to ease operational burdens on firms in response to the pandemic. The PRA has now published two policy statements following these consultations.

Policy Statement 9/21 provides feedback to responses to CP20/20 ‘Operational continuity in resolution: Updates to the policy’. It also contains the PRA’s final policy:

• amendments to the Operational Continuity Part of the PRA Rulebook, including amending the definition of critical services (see Appendix 1); and
• a new Supervisory Statement 4/21 ‘Ensuring operational continuity in resolution’ – this will superseded SS9/16 (see Appendix 2).

These changes will take effect on 1 January 2023.

Policy Statement 10/21 provides feedback to responses to CP19/20 ‘Resolution assessments: Amendments to reporting and disclosure dates’. It also contains the PRA’s final policy:

• amendments to Rules 3.1(1) and 4.1(1) in the Resolution Assessment Part of the PRA Rulebook (see Appendix 1); and
• an updated Supervisory Statement 4/19 ‘Resolution assessment and public disclosure by firms’ (see Appendix 2).

Key dates

• The amendments to Resolution Assessment 3.1(1) and 4.1(1) will be effective from 2 June 2021
• The amendments to SS4/19 take effect from 28 May 2021
• Firms must submit their first report by 1 October 2021. Thereafter, firms must submit their report biennially by the first Friday in October of the relevant calendar year
• Firms should submit to the PRA their plan for implementing the OCIR policy by 18 February 2022
• Firms must publish their first public disclosure by 10 June 2022. Thereafter, firms must publish their public disclosure biennially by the second Friday in June of the relevant calendar year

The BoE has also confirmed that it is going ahead with its proposed amendments to ‘Statement of Policy: The Bank of England’s Approach to Assessing Resolvability’ (RAF SoP), which are changes to:

• the operational continuity in resolution section of the RAF SoP; and
• sections of the RAF SoP where firms’ submissions and disclosures under the Resolution Assessment Part of the PRA Rulebook in 2020/21 were mentioned.

These changes are effective immediately.