First Cloud Resilience Crisis Management Exercise by APAC Financial Regulators and Cloud Providers

Singapore, 15 November 2024… Asia Pacific financial regulators and global cloud service providers (CSPs) in the Financial Sector Cloud Resilience ForumEstablished in April 2023, the Financial Sector Cloud Resilience Forum, comprising representatives from Asia Pacific financial regulators and Cloud Service Providers, convenes twice yearly to exchange views on appropriate public cloud risk management practices for the financial sector. Please refer to MAS' media release for details of the Forum., established by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), conducted a crisis management tabletop exercise on 6 November 2024. The exercise, which is the first of its kind in the region, simulated a severe public cloud incident disrupting multiple financial sectors across the region.

2 The exercise enabled Forum members to strengthen their mutual understanding of one another's incident response playbooks, identify possible supervisory interventions, and collaborate on measures to mitigate the impact of a severe public cloud service disruption. The exercise also demonstrated the importance of close collaboration and communication between financial regulators and CSPs during an incident to improve situational awareness, inform decision-making, and coordinate efforts to recover from disruptions.

3 The exercise was attended by senior representatives from financial authorities from the regionAustralian Prudential Regulation Authority, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (Indonesian Financial Services Authority), Bank of Japan, Bank Negara Malaysia (Malaysian Central Bank), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (Philippines Central Bank), Bank of Thailand, and MAS were the financial authorities which participated in the exercise. and global CSPsAmazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure were the CSPs which participated in the exercise. in the Forum.

4 Mr Vincent Loy, Assistant Managing Director (Technology), MAS, and Chairperson of the Forum, said, "Cloud adoption is set to increase as the financial industry presses ahead with digital transformation. This Forum provides an important avenue for regional financial authorities and global CSPs to work together to improve operational resilience in the financial sector. This inaugural exercise is timely as it helps to strengthen processes for responding to a major public cloud incident in the financial sector. Through the exercise, both the financial authorities and CSPs have gained deeper insights on how to coordinate their efforts effectively in responding to and recovering from disruptions, and maintain public confidence in the financial sector".

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