General provisions

Subject matter

1. In order to achieve a high common level of digital operational resilience, this Regulation lays down uniform requirements concerning the security of network and information systems supporting the business processes of financial entities as follows:
   1. requirements applicable to financial entities in relation to:
      1. information and communication technology (ICT) risk management;
      2. reporting of major ICT-related incidents and notifying, on a voluntary basis, significant cyber threats to the competent authorities;
      3. reporting of major operational or security payment-related incidents to the competent authorities by financial entities referred to in Article 2(1), points (a) to (d);
      4. digital operational resilience testing;
      5. information and intelligence sharing in relation to cyber threats and vulnerabilities;
      6. measures for the sound management of ICT third-party risk;
   2. requirements in relation to the contractual arrangements concluded between ICT third-party service providers and financial entities;
   3. rules for the establishment and conduct of the Oversight Framework for critical ICT third-party service providers when providing services to financial entities;
   4. rules on cooperation among competent authorities, and rules on supervision and enforcement by competent authorities in relation to all matters covered by this Regulation.
2. In relation to financial entities identified as essential or important entities pursuant to national rules transposing Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2022/2555, this Regulation shall be considered a sector-specific Union legal act for the purposes of Article 4 of that Directive.
3. This Regulation is without prejudice to the responsibility of Member States` regarding essential State functions concerning public security, defence and national security in accordance with Union law.

Scope

1. Without prejudice to paragraphs 3 and 4, this Regulation applies to the following entities:

   1. credit institutions;
   2. payment institutions, including payment institutions exempted pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/2366;
   3. account information service providers;
   4. electronic money institutions, including electronic money institutions exempted pursuant to Directive 2009/110/EC;
   5. investment firms;
   6. crypto-asset service providers as authorised under a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on markets in crypto-assets, and amending Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010 and (EU) No 1095/2010 and Directives 2013/36/EU and (EU) 2019/1937 (the Regulation on markets in crypto-assets) and issuers of asset-referenced tokens;
   7. central securities depositories;
   8. central counterparties;
   9. trading venues;
   10. trade repositories;
   11. managers of alternative investment funds;
   12. management companies;
   13. data reporting service providers;
   14. insurance and reinsurance undertakings;
   15. insurance intermediaries, reinsurance intermediaries and ancillary insurance intermediaries;
   16. institutions for occupational retirement provision;
   17. credit rating agencies;
   18. administrators of critical benchmarks;
   19. crowdfunding service providers;
   20. securitisation repositories;
   21. ICT third-party service providers.

2. For the purposes of this Regulation, entities referred to in paragraph 1, points (a) to (t), shall collectively be referred to as financial entities.

3. This Regulation does not apply to:

   1. managers of alternative investment funds as referred to in Article 3(2) of Directive 2011/61/EU;

   2. insurance and reinsurance undertakings as referred to in Article 4 of Directive 2009/138/EC;

   3. institutions for occupational retirement provision which operate pension schemes which together do not have more than 15 members in total;

   4. natural or legal persons exempted pursuant to Articles 2 and 3 of Directive 2014/65/EU;

   5. insurance intermediaries, reinsurance intermediaries and ancillary insurance intermediaries which are microenterprises or small or medium-sized enterprises;

   6. post office giro institutions as referred to in Article 2(5), point (3), of Directive 2013/36/EU.

4. Member States may exclude from the scope of this Regulation entities referred to in Article 2(5), points (4) to (23), of Directive 2013/36/EU that are located within their respective territories. Where a Member State makes use of such option, it shall inform the Commission thereof as well as of any subsequent changes thereto. The Commission shall make that information publicly available on its website or other easily accessible means.

Definitions

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions shall apply:

(1) digital operational resilience means the ability of a financial entity to build, assure and review its operational integrity and reliability by ensuring, either directly or indirectly through the use of services provided by ICT third-party service providers, the full range of ICT-related capabilities needed to address the security of the network and information systems which a financial entity uses, and which support the continued provision of financial services and their quality, including throughout disruptions;

(2) network and information system means a network and information system as defined in Article 6, point 1, of Directive (EU) 2022/2555;

(3) legacy ICT system means an ICT system that has reached the end of its lifecycle (end-of-life), that is not suitable for upgrades or fixes, for technological or commercial reasons, or is no longer supported by its supplier or by an ICT third-party service provider, but that is still in use and supports the functions of the financial entity;

(4) security of network and information systems means security of network and information systems as defined in Article 6, point 2, of Directive (EU) 2022/2555;

(5) ICT risk means any reasonably identifiable circumstance in relation to the use of network and information systems which, if materialised, may compromise the security of the network and information systems, of any technology dependent tool or process, of operations and processes, or of the provision of services by producing adverse effects in the digital or physical environment;

(6) information asset means a collection of information, either tangible or intangible, that is worth protecting; (7) ICT asset means a software or hardware asset in the network and information systems used by the financial entity;

(8) ICT-related incident means a single event or a series of linked events unplanned by the financial entity that compromises the security of the network and information systems, and have an adverse impact on the availability, authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of data, or on the services provided by the financial entity;

(9) operational or security payment-related incident means a single event or a series of linked events unplanned by the financial entities referred to in Article 2(1), points (a) to (d), whether ICT-related or not, that has an adverse impact on the availability, authenticity, integrity or confidentiality of payment-related data, or on the payment-related services provided by the financial entity;

(10) major ICT-related incident means an ICT-related incident that has a high adverse impact on the network and information systems that support critical or important functions of the financial entity;

(11) major operational or security payment-related incident means an operational or security payment-related incident that has a high adverse impact on the payment-related services provided;

(12) cyber threat means cyber threat as defined in Article 2, point (8), of Regulation (EU) 2019/881;

(13) significant cyber threat means a cyber threat the technical characteristics of which indicate that it could have the potential to result in a major ICT-related incident or a major operational or security payment-related incident;

(14) cyber-attack means a malicious ICT-related incident caused by means of an attempt perpetrated by any threat actor to destroy, expose, alter, disable, steal or gain unauthorised access to, or make unauthorised use of, an asset;

(15) threat intelligence means information that has been aggregated, transformed, analysed, interpreted or enriched to provide the necessary context for decision-making and to enable relevant and sufficient understanding in order to mitigate the impact of an ICT-related incident or of a cyber threat, including the technical details of a cyber-attack, those responsible for the attack and their modus operandi and motivations;

(16) vulnerability means a weakness, susceptibility or flaw of an asset, system, process or control that can be exploited;

(17) threat-led penetration testing (TLPT) means a framework that mimics the tactics, techniques and procedures of real life threat actors perceived as posing a genuine cyber threat, that delivers a controlled, bespoke, intelligence-led (red team) test of the financial entity`s critical live production systems;

(18) ICT third-party risk means an ICT risk that may arise for a financial entity in relation to its use of ICT services provided by ICT third-party service providers or by subcontractors of the latter, including through outsourcing arrangements;

(19) ICT third-party service provider means an undertaking providing ICT services;

(20) ICT intra-group service provider means an undertaking that is part of a financial group and that provides predominantly ICT services to financial entities within the same group or to financial entities belonging to the same institutional protection scheme, including to their parent undertakings, subsidiaries, branches or other entities that are under common ownership or control;

(21) ICT services means digital and data services provided through ICT systems to one or more internal or external users on an ongoing basis, including hardware as a service and hardware services which includes the provision of technical support via software or firmware updates by the hardware provider, excluding traditional analogue telephone services;

(22) critical or important function means a function, the disruption of which would materially impair the financial performance of a financial entity, or the soundness or continuity of its services and activities, or the discontinued, defective or failed performance of that function would materially impair the continuing compliance of a financial entity with the conditions and obligations of its authorisation, or with its other obligations under applicable financial services law;

(23) critical ICT third-party service provider means an ICT third-party service provider designated as critical in accordance with Article 31;

(24) ICT third-party service provider established in a third country means an ICT third-party service provider that is a legal person established in a third-country and that has entered into a contractual arrangement with a financial entity for the provision of ICT services;

(25) subsidiary means a subsidiary undertaking within the meaning of Article 2, point (10), and Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU;

(26) group means a group as defined in Article 2, point (11), of Directive 2013/34/EU;

(27) parent undertaking means a parent undertaking within the meaning of Article 2, point (9), and Article 22 of Directive 2013/34/EU;

(28) ICT subcontractor established in a third country means an ICT subcontractor that is a legal person established in a third-country and that has entered into a contractual arrangement either with an ICT third-party service provider, or with an ICT third-party service provider established in a third country;

(29) ICT concentration risk means an exposure to individual or multiple related critical ICT third-party service providers creating a degree of dependency on such providers so that the unavailability, failure or other type of shortfall of such provider may potentially endanger the ability of a financial entity to deliver critical or important functions, or cause it to suffer other types of adverse effects, including large losses, or endanger the financial stability of the Union as a whole;

(30) management body means a management body as defined in Article 4(1), point (36), of Directive 2014/65/EU, Article 3(1), point (7), of Directive 2013/36/EU, Article 2(1), point (s), of Directive 2009/65/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (31), Article 2(1), point (45), of Regulation (EU) No 909/2014, Article 3(1), point (20), of Regulation (EU) 2016/1011, and in the relevant provision of the Regulation on markets in crypto-assets, or the equivalent persons who effectively run the entity or have key functions in accordance with relevant Union or national law;

(31) credit institution means a credit institution as defined in Article 4(1), point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 575/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council (32);

(32) institution exempted pursuant to Directive 2013/36/EU means an entity as referred to in Article 2(5), points (4) to (23), of Directive 2013/36/EU;

(33) investment firm means an investment firm as defined in Article 4(1), point (1), of Directive 2014/65/EU;

(34) small and non-interconnected investment firm means an investment firm that meets the conditions laid out in Article 12(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/2033 of the European Parliament and of the Council (33);

(35) payment institution means a payment institution as defined in Article 4, point (4), of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;

(36) payment institution exempted pursuant to Directive (EU) 2015/2366 means a payment institution exempted pursuant to Article 32(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;

(37) account information service provider means an account information service provider as referred to in Article 33(1) of Directive (EU) 2015/2366;

(38) electronic money institution means an electronic money institution as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Directive 2009/110/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council;

(39) electronic money institution exempted pursuant to Directive 2009/110/EC means an electronic money institution benefitting from a waiver as referred to in Article 9(1) of Directive 2009/110/EC;

(40) central counterparty means a central counterparty as defined in Article 2, point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012;

(41) trade repository means a trade repository as defined in Article 2, point (2), of Regulation (EU) No 648/2012;

(42) central securities depository means a central securities depository as defined in Article 2(1), point (1), of Regulation (EU) No 909/2014;

(43) trading venue means a trading venue as defined in Article 4(1), point (24), of Directive 2014/65/EU;

(44) manager of alternative investment funds means a manager of alternative investment funds as defined in Article 4(1), point (b), of Directive 2011/61/EU;

(45) management company means a management company as defined in Article 2(1), point (b), of Directive 2009/65/EC;

(46) data reporting service provider means a data reporting service provider within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 600/2014, as referred to in Article 2(1), points (34) to (36) thereof;

(47) insurance undertaking means an insurance undertaking as defined in Article 13, point (1), of Directive 2009/138/EC;

(48) reinsurance undertaking means a reinsurance undertaking as defined in Article 13, point (4), of Directive 2009/138/EC;

(49) insurance intermediary means an insurance intermediary as defined in Article 2(1), point (3), of Directive (EU) 2016/97 of the European Parliament and of the Council (34);

(50) ancillary insurance intermediary means an ancillary insurance intermediary as defined in Article 2(1), point (4), of Directive (EU) 2016/97;

(51) reinsurance intermediary means a reinsurance intermediary as defined in Article 2(1), point (5), of Directive (EU) 2016/97;

(52) institution for occupational retirement provision means an institution for occupational retirement provision as defined in Article 6, point (1), of Directive (EU) 2016/2341;

(53) small institution for occupational retirement provision means an institution for occupational retirement provision which operates pension schemes which together have less than 100 members in total;

(54) credit rating agency means a credit rating agency as defined in Article 3(1), point (b), of Regulation (EC) No 1060/2009;

(55) crypto-asset service provider means a crypto-asset service provider as defined in the relevant provision of the Regulation on markets in crypto-assets;

(56) issuer of asset-referenced tokens means an issuer of asset-referenced tokens as defined in the relevant provision of the Regulation on markets in crypto-assets;

(57) administrator of critical benchmarks means an administrator of critical benchmarks as defined in Article 3(1), point (25), of Regulation (EU) 2016/1011;

(58) crowdfunding service provider means a crowdfunding service provider as defined in Article 2(1), point (e), of Regulation (EU) 2020/1503 of the European Parliament and of the Council (35);

(59) securitisation repository means a securitisation repository as defined in Article 2, point (23), of Regulation (EU) 2017/2402 of the European Parliament and of the Council (36);

(60) microenterprise means a financial entity, other than a trading venue, a central counterparty, a trade repository or a central securities depository, which employs fewer than 10 persons and has an annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total that does not exceed EUR 2 million;

(61) Lead Overseer means the European Supervisory Authority appointed in accordance with Article 31(1), point (b) of this Regulation;

(62) Joint Committee means the committee referred to in Article 54 of Regulations (EU) No 1093/2010, (EU) No 1094/2010 and (EU) No 1095/2010;

(63) small enterprise means a financial entity that employs 10 or more persons, but fewer than 50 persons, and has an annual turnover and/or annual balance sheet total that exceeds EUR 2 million, but does not exceed EUR 10 million;

(64) medium-sized enterprise means a financial entity that is not a small enterprise and employs fewer than 250 persons and has an annual turnover that does not exceed EUR 50 million and/or an annual balance sheet that does not exceed EUR 43 million;

(65) public authority means any government or other public administration entity, including national central banks.

Proportionality principle

1. Financial entities shall implement the rules laid down in Chapter II in accordance with the principle of proportionality, taking into account their size and overall risk profile, and the nature, scale and complexity of their services, activities and operations.

2. In addition, the application by financial entities of Chapters III, IV and V, Section I, shall be proportionate to their size and overall risk profile, and to the nature, scale and complexity of their services, activities and operations, as specifically provided for in the relevant rules of those Chapters.

3. The competent authorities shall consider the application of the proportionality principle by financial entities when reviewing the consistency of the ICT risk management framework on the basis of the reports submitted upon the request of competent authorities pursuant to Article 6(5) and Article 16(2).