Understanding DORA's Impact: Your Fintech's Partners Could Be Your Biggest Risk | Wayne Scott, Regulatory Compliance Lead at Escode

Jan 21, 2025

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DORA is here and if you are a FinTech in Europe you MUST listen to this conversation! DORA is the Digital Operational Resilience Act that is effective from 17th Jan, 2025; and will affect all FinTech partners – yes it’s a biggy one; potentially bigger than GDPR!

In this pod I speak with Wayne Scott, Regulatory Compliance Solutions Lead at Escode. Wayne brings his extensive global regulatory expertise and breaks down why this new European regulation is a game-changer for FinTechs worldwide - and why we should be paying attention NOW.

🔑 Key Highlights on DORA:

DORA goes into effect January 17th, affecting 15,000+ financial institutions and 7-8,000 fintechs
Unlike previous regulations, DORA extends to ALL critical suppliers and partners in the fintech ecosystem
Potential fines could reach 2% of global revenue PER DAY for non-compliance
The regulation impacts any company providing services into Europe, regardless of their location
Not just about security - DORA focuses on operational resilience, supplier failure, and concentration risk

We discuss how regulation actually spurs innovation rather than stifling it, diving deep into the practical implications of Europe's new Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) and its global ripple effects; explore the concept of operational contagion in our interconnected fintech ecosystem, and how businesses need to prepare for the AI revolution from a regulatory standpoint.

We go wide and talk critical supply chain risk management, demystifying the process of identifying and protecting vital business infrastructure, and the future of global financial regulation in 2025 and beyond.

We cover:

[00:10:00] What is DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act) explained in plain English

[00:10:25] The scope: Affects 15,000 financial institutions and 7-8,000 fintechs

[00:11:29] Why you can't argue your way out of DORA compliance

[00:11:49] Understanding critical services - from cloud providers to core systems

[00:15:10] The five key principles for DORA compliance checklist

[00:30:22] Redefining Business Resilience - Beyond just "getting up and trying again"

[00:31:43] The real meaning of resilience in fintech operations

[00:35:03] Understanding Operational Contagion and its domino effects

[00:36:20] Real-world example: How a single outage affected global operations

[00:37:33] The Silicon Valley Bank case study - When operational fails trigger financial contagion

[00:39:35] AI's impact on financial services regulation

[00:41:00] How AI could make current tech companies obsolete

[00:42:15] Managing the risks of rapid AI adoption in financial services

[00:48:57] The regulatory roadmap for 2025 and beyond

🚀 Your Action Items:

Assign someone to own DORA compliance
Map your critical suppliers and infrastructure
Document policies and procedures
Test scenario capabilities

👉 Connect with Scott:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/waynethomasscott/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/escodeglobal/posts/?feedView=all
Website: https://www.escode.com/

👉 Connect with Monica:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicamillares/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@moni_millares
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@moni_millares
Website: https://www.purposedrivenfintech.com/

Disclaimer: This episode does not constitute professional nor financial advice and does not represent the opinion nor views of my current, past or future employers. The guest has agreed to record and release our conversation for the use of this podcast and promotion in social media.