Receive the latest insights, news and more direct to your inbox.
Services
Our progressive thinkers offer services to help create, protect and transform value today, so you have opportunity to thrive tomorrow.
-
Business Risk
Grant Thornton Gibraltar’s Business Risk Services team brings together a group of specialists with an unrivalled depth of industry experience. Our solutions support clients in growing and protecting the inherent value of their businesses with practical risk management systems.
-
Consulting
Our solutions focused team guarantees quick turnarounds, and with lower partner to staff ratio than most we can provide bespoke offerings tailored to your unique needs.
-
Financial Accounting and Advisory Services (FAAS)
Our team of experts here at Grant Thornton is committed to providing best-in-class solutions to help our clients effectively overcome the hurdles associated with complex regulatory compliance requirements, especially when entering new markets.
-
Fintech
Grant Thornton’s cross-functional, dynamic team of specialists can help with your FinTech needs. Whether in supporting existing market participants looking to innovate in products and services, or new entrants seeking to upscale their FinTech businesses within the complex financial services environment, we have the solution for you.
-
Forensic Accounting
Organisations may undergo some type of dispute or internal investigation during their lifetime. Our Forensic and Investigation Services team can seek evidence that can make the difference between finding the truth or being left in the dark.
-
Insolvency
At Grant Thornton we offer solutions for all insolvency matters. We have a team of experts who deliver innovative and practical solutions and who have assisted a range of organisations and individuals return to prosperity.
-
Sustainability Advisory
Our Sustainability Advisory team works with clients to accelerate their sustainability journey through innovative and pragmatic solutions.
Our services can strengthen your business and stakeholders' confidence. You'll receive professionally verified results and insights that help you grow.
-
Accountancy Services
The Accountancy function is critical to any modern business. Our team of qualified accounting professionals at Grant Thornton Gibraltar can draw on their depth of experience and knowledge to ensure your accounts are expertly prepared to meet with all local and international standards.
-
Audit & Assurance
Grant Thornton is bringing a fresh approach to the audit process in Gibraltar by combining leading-edge technologies with a highly qualified team of audit professionals, all of whom are experts in key sectors of Gibraltar’s economy, and particularly in dealing with regulated entities.
Our tax solutions help you gain trust and stay ahead, enabling you to manage your tax transparently and ethically.
-
Company Tax
Our highly qualified and experienced team of tax professionals works closely with our clients to gain a deep understanding of their specific needs in order to ensure they are compliant in every aspect of their corporation tax requirements.
-
Employment and Payroll Services
Here at Grant Thornton, we can minimise the hassles associated with the HR function for companies in Gibraltar. By taking care of all your company’s Employment, Payroll and associated requirements to the highest standards, you can focus on what you do best with the peace of mind that your local compliance needs are being taken care of by professionals.
-
Global mobility Services
Our team of experts here at Grant Thornton provides a full range of professional services and advice to employers. Whether you require assistance in performing employment tax compliance reviews, or your business demands bespoke global mobility strategies tailored to your specific needs, we work closely with employers at every stage of the staff lifecycle thereby ensuring that all decisions are made giving consideration to both compliance and tax efficiency.
-
International Tax
In a world where disaggregating a company’s tax and operational presences is increasingly challenging, Grant Thornton’s approach to managing your international tax obligations can add value to your business.
-
Personal Tax Advisory
Our team of personal tax advisors have an unrivalled depth of knowledge and expertise in handling all your compliance requirements in a professional manner. Whether you need assistance with your CAT 2 status application as a High Net Worth Individual, or more general day-to-day tax preparation services and advice, we are here to help.
-
Private Client
Grant Thornton’s experienced team of specialists can help to steer you successfully through a range of tax-related challenges. Whether you are establishing a business in Gibraltar, moving to or from the jurisdiction, transferring wealth, or need help with residence and domicile issues, we offer advice that can help you minimise the burden that taxes may have upon your personal wealth.
The Gibraltar Financial Services Commission (GFSC) reminds firms of their expectations in relation to Operational Resilience during their annual Insurance Market Update on the 8th of March 2024, and announces their intention to conduct a thematic review of Operational Resilience post July 2024.
Contents
Subscribe to our mailing list
Implementing operational resilience
The implementation process necessitates firms identifying important business services, establishing impact tolerances, and document mapping and scenario testing programs to anticipate and mitigate failures.
Mapping should include all critical resources - such as people, IT systems, assets, third parties, facilities - and consider internal and external dependencies. Mapping and scenario testing should evolve as the industries environment changes.
Firms’ approaches need to acknowledge failures are inevitable, and the Board should be able to demonstrate their ownership, direction, evaluation and monitoring of the Operational Resilience Framework.
When implementing the framework, some key areas to consider from an operational standpoint include:
An entity-level approach
Regulators expect insurance firms to take an entity-level approach to operational resilience, with an understanding of how group-level risks will affect the ability to stay within pre-agreed tolerance levels.
Outsourcing and third-party risk
When mapping and assessing processes, this must include those that are outsourced to a third party. This may include intermediaries underwriting businesses, which would be considered a critical service, and third-party payment service providers.
Business continuity
It’s important to differentiate between business continuity arrangements and operational resilience while recognising that business continuity is an important component of operational resilience.
Bearing in mind the complex operating environment for insurers, including intra-group and third-party risks, firms need to make sure they have an appropriate framework and target operating model in place to embed operational resilience standards and prevent economic harm in the event of an outage.
Scenario testing & building resilience
The vulnerabilities identified as part of the mapping of critical services exercise must link to the scenario testing, which must assume disruption has occurred and include failures of backup arrangements and cases where multiple parts of the organisation are disrupted.
The testing must be appropriate, robust, and have continuous involvement with the Senior Management and the Board.
Resilience strategies should prioritise outcomes, considering substitutability of services, reviewing and adapting outsourcing arrangements, and rebuilding and replacing legacy systems.
Early completion of mapping and testing allows firms more time to fortify against vulnerabilities, ensuring operational resilience in a dynamic regulatory landscape.
Operational resilience thematic reviews
Areas that will be covered by the thematic review will include a review of:
- The important business services (IBS) identified by the firm and the criteria used by firms to define these.
- The impact tolerances set and justifications for such.
- The mapping of the IBS to people, processes, technology, data, and facilities.
- The vulnerabilities identified.
- The firm’s plan for scenario testing and linkage to mapping and vulnerabilities.
- Any lessons learnt exercises or scenarios.
- How the plan has been considered and approved by the Board, including:
- The annual Self-Assessment review of Operational Resilience Framework.
- The management information embedded into the cadence of Board reporting.
- The interaction between the operational resilience and financial resilience assessment.
- The interaction between operational resilience and BCP, Disaster recovery, Cyber Resilience, and Incident Management.
Key considerations and next steps
As the compliance deadline of July fast approaches, the GFSC have published Guidance Notes on Operational Resilience in March 2024 (GFSC guidance notes on operational resilience), and with further impending requirements coming into force from July 2024 and July 2026, insurance firms have a significant amount work to undertake in order to meet regulatory expectations within each timeframe.
How can we help?
Grant Thornton is a market leading firm in preparing financial entities for the introduction of Operational Resilience.
We have worked with several financial entities that fall within the scope of Operational Resilience requirements in supporting them through readiness, business function / service mapping and implementation in preparing those entities for the requirements across the key aspects of GFSC’s Operational Resilience in advance of the July 2024 deadline.
In addition to this, we have received accreditations and possess first-hand experience in engaging with the regulator in this area. We also provide support for firms to comply with the Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) requirements, set to come into force in 2025.
Authors
-
Bradley Chadwick Bradley leads the Grant Thornton Gibraltar advisory practice, where he leverages his experience as an advisor, CFO, COO and interim manager to support clients with strategic, regulatory, transactional and restructuring matters.View Profile -
Neal Taylor Neal was appointed as audit partner in Grant Thornton in 2016. Prior to this he was an audit partner in a mid-tier practice for nine years, where he developed a broad client base.View Profile