COO view: The quest for operational resilience

Mike Tumilty, Global Chief Operating Officer at Standard Life Aberdeen explores why technology is an important service for operational resilience.

Mike Headshot New Sep 2018 002
Mike Tumilty, Global Chief Operating Officer at Standard Life Aberdeen

Sara Benwell: What qualifies as Important Business Services that require the most attention in operational resilience strategies?

Mike Tumilty: In the asset management space the key business service is technology given that all our critical processes are driven by systems, e.g. Charles River, risk systems, performance systems, client reporting, and so forth.

Coupled with that would be telephony and the overarching reliance on broadband to provide connectivity for colleagues.

We are also inherently reliant on third party service providers, for example, Citi, State Street, and BNP Paribas for custody and fund accounting.

Sara: Looking at assigning accountability, for multi- jurisdictional and worldwide groups, what key questions do we need answers on from parent companies and how best can we hold them to account on deliverables?

Mike: What is vital here is to have very clear policies and frameworks, which cover the entire firm wherever it operates.

That does not mean to say one size fits all, but having overarching policies and frameworks that can be leveraged is really important so minimum standards can be set globally.