Risk and governance
Operational Resilience
The ability of an organisation to prevent, withstand, adapt to and recover from operational disruptions while continuing to deliver critical functions.
Definition
Operational resilience is the ability of an organisation to deliver critical operations through disruption — anticipating, withstanding, recovering from and adapting to adverse events such as cyber incidents, extreme weather, pandemics or supply failures. In financial regulation it has become a defined supervisory expectation, notably under Basel Committee and Bank of England frameworks.
References
definition and supervisory framework
impact tolerance and important business services concepts
Overview
What it means
Rather than trying to prevent every failure, operational resilience assumes disruption will occur and focuses on identifying important business services, setting impact tolerances and testing the ability to stay within them. Climate change is a rising driver, as physical hazards increasingly threaten facilities, infrastructure and supply chains.
How it is used
Banks, insurers and critical infrastructure operators implement operational resilience programmes under regulatory frameworks; the concept is also used in corporate risk management and climate adaptation planning.
Why it matters
As climate and geopolitical shocks intensify, operational resilience determines whether essential services — finance, energy, food, health — keep functioning, making it a core dimension of systemic sustainability risk management. **Note:** Serves as the merge target for ID 1955 (Organizational resilience).
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