The European Supervisory Authorities have published their first annual overview of major ICT-related incidents in the EU financial sector under the reporting framework of the Digital Operational Resilience Act.
The report is issued by the European Banking Authority, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, and the European Securities and Markets Authority.
DORA Review Finds Cross-Border ICT Risk
The report consolidates incident reporting requirements under DORA and aims to standardise how financial entities classify, manage, and report ICT-related disruptions across the European Union.
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According to the findings, ICT risks are increasingly cross-border and interconnected. The report stated that “ICT risks are increasingly borderless and interconnected.” It added that shared digital infrastructure and outsourced services are contributing to wider operational risk transmission across markets.
Financial firms in the EU reported 3,383 major ICT-related incidents. Around one third had cross-border effects, reflecting greater interconnectedness in financial systems. The authorities noted that the direct impact on customers and transactions was generally limited.
AI Raises Future Financial Cyber Risk
System failures and external events were identified as the main drivers of disruption. The report highlighted the importance of third-party risk management , oversight of outsourced services, and coordination with providers during incident response and recovery.
Cybersecurity-related incidents accounted for about 10% of the total. While the share was relatively small, the report warned that firms must maintain strong cybersecurity standards. It also pointed to the potential use of highly capable AI-driven tools as a factor that could increase future risk pressure on financial systems.
Overall, the authorities said the findings point to a more systemic ICT risk environment across the financial sector, requiring stronger resilience, supervision, and coordination to prevent and respond to future disruptions.
Under DORA, ICT-related incidents are defined as unplanned events affecting the security of network and information systems and impacting availability, integrity, authenticity, or confidentiality of data or services. A major ICT-related incident is one with a high impact on critical or important functions of a financial entity.