Compliance Briefing — January 1, 2024
OSFI’s Guideline B-13 on Technology and Cyber Risk Management is now in force, requiring Canadian federally regulated financial institutions to evidence governance, risk management, and incident response controls.
Executive briefing: Canada’s Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions (OSFI) made Guideline B-13 effective on 1 January 2024. Banks, insurers, and trust companies must demonstrate technology and cyber risk frameworks covering governance, technology operations, cyber security, third-party management, and resilience testing.
Key compliance checkpoints
- Governance. Ensure boards approve technology strategies, define risk appetite, and receive regular reporting on technology risk metrics.
- Technology operations. Maintain asset inventories, configuration management, change control, and capacity planning aligned with Guideline expectations.
- Cyber security. Implement layered defences, threat detection, incident response, and reporting processes that meet OSFI’s requirements.
Operational priorities
- Third-party management. Enhance oversight of critical service providers, including risk assessments, contractual protections, and exit strategies.
- Testing and resilience. Conduct scenario exercises, penetration tests, and recovery drills proportionate to business criticality.
- Documentation. Maintain policies, standards, and evidence repositories demonstrating compliance for supervisory reviews.
Enablement moves
- Integrate B-13 controls with existing frameworks (NIST CSF, ISO 27001) to streamline oversight.
- Implement metrics dashboards covering risk indicators, control effectiveness, and incident trends.
- Embed lessons learned from incidents into change management and continuous improvement cycles.
Sources
Zeph Tech enables Canadian financial institutions to evidence B-13 compliance with maturity assessments, third-party governance toolkits, and resilience testing roadmaps.