Banks push back against expanding UK cyber bill

The second reading of the UK’s Cyber Security and Resilience Bill in Parliament on January 6 sparked immediate debate both among politicians and those in the banking sector. MPs clamoured for the upcoming legislation to be widened to encompass more organisations across additional sectors and for the regulators to be given additional powers.

But there is growing concern from the financial services sector that the bill, which was originally designed to protect critical sectors from cyber attacks and bring the UK in line with the EU’s Digital Operational Resilience Act, could impose an unnecessary regulatory burden on banks.