Scenario testing for Treasury & Capital Markets is a core practice to validate that critical trading, funding, and risk management activities can remain within acceptable impact tolerances during severe but plausible disruptions.
For AmBank, these activities sit at the heart of market confidence, liquidity management, and client service delivery, making them highly sensitive to operational, market, cyber, and technology shocks. Structured scenario testing enables the bank to move beyond theoretical plans and demonstrate that its people, processes, technology, and third parties can collectively withstand stress.
In line with operational resilience principles (as outlined in industry guidance such as the BCM Institute’s discussion on scenario testing), the focus is on end-to-end service continuity, not just system recovery.
The scenarios below intentionally integrate cyber and ICT risks—such as system outages, data corruption, cyberattacks, and third-party failures—because most modern disruptions in capital markets are technology-amplified.
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Sub-CBS Code |
Sub-CBS |
Recommended Scenario Test Themes (incl. Cyber/ICT) |
Impact / Effect |
Evidence of Proactive Risk Management Action |
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4.1 |
Foreign Exchange (FX) Trading |
• Trading platform outage during peak hours • Cyber breach causing rate manipulation or data integrity issues • Market data feed disruption |
Inability to quote/execute trades, pricing errors, reputational impact |
• Alternate trading channels tested • Data feed redundancy • Cyber incident playbooks and audit logs reviewed |
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4.2 |
Interest Rate & Money Market Trading |
• Core treasury system downtime • Connectivity loss to interbank platforms • Ransomware on dealer desktops |
Liquidity gaps, missed placements, and funding cost increase |
• Manual dealing procedures validated • Backup connectivity and secure remote access tested • Segregated clean devices available |
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4.3 |
Derivatives & Structured Products |
• Valuation engine failure • Model corruption or unauthorized model changes • Cloud service outage |
Mispricing, hedge ineffectiveness, and financial loss |
• Independent price verification tested • Model governance controls evidenced • Cloud DR failover results documented |
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4.4 |
Fixed Income & Debt Instruments Trading |
• Settlement system disruption • SWIFT connectivity outage • Cyberattack on trade capture |
Failed trades, counterparty disputes, liquidity strain |
• SWIFT contingency arrangements • Reconciliation backlogs simulation • Incident response coordination with counterparties |
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4.5 |
Capital Markets Origination & Syndication |
• Secure data room breach • Deal documentation system outage • Insider data leak |
Confidentiality breach, deal delays, legal risk |
• Access controls and DLP tested • Secure offline document procedures • Legal and comms response rehearsed |
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4.6 |
DCM Solutions & Advisory |
• Loss of client proposal data • Email system compromise (phishing/BEC) |
Client trust erosion, mandate loss |
• Encrypted backups verified • Phishing simulations and response metrics • Client communication protocols tested |
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4.7 |
Asset Liability & Balance Sheet Management (ALM) |
• ALM system unavailability • Data warehouse corruption • Interface failures between core systems |
Impaired liquidity and interest rate risk view |
• Parallel spreadsheets/manual fallback tested • Data restoration drills • Data lineage documentation validated |
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4.8 |
Market Risk Analytics & Reporting |
• Risk engine outage near reporting deadlines • Data integrity breach |
Inaccurate risk view, regulatory concerns |
• Secondary risk engine readiness • Data validation controls tested • Regulatory notification drills |
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4.9 |
Post-Trade & Settlement Operations |
• Custodian/CCP outage • Payment system disruption • Cyberattack on back-office processing |
Settlement failures, financial penalties |
• Alternative settlement routes tested • Liquidity buffers validated • Third-party resilience attestations reviewed |
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4.10 |
Regulatory & Compliance Governance |
• Regulatory reporting system outage • Data leakage of regulatory submissions |
Non-compliance, fines, reputational damage |
• Manual reporting workflow tested • Secure transmission channels validated • Compliance escalation drills |
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4.11 |
Client Relationship & Sales Support |
• CRM outage • Contact center disruption • Client data breach |
Poor client experience, trust erosion |
• Alternate client contact lists • Crisis communication scripts tested • Privacy incident response rehearsed |
Effective scenario testing transforms resilience from a policy requirement into a measurable capability. For Treasury & Capital Markets, where speed, accuracy, and confidence are essential, these exercises help AmBank validate that disruption does not automatically translate into service failure. By integrating cyber and ICT risks into every scenario, the bank reflects the reality that digital dependencies are now inseparable from financial operations.
Over time, repeated testing, lessons-learned reviews, and progressive scenario severity will strengthen AmBank’s ability to anticipate disruption, absorb shocks, and recover within tolerance. This not only supports regulatory expectations but also reinforces market credibility and client trust—key pillars for sustainable growth in Treasury & Capital Markets.
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Operational Resilience Framework: A Case Study of AmBank Malaysia |
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| eBook 3: Starting Your OR Implementation |
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| CBS-4 Treasury & Capital Markets | |||||
| CBS-4 DP | CBS-4 MD | CBS-4 MPR | CBS-4 ITo | CBS-4 SuPS | CBS-4 ST |
To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for the [OR-3] OR-300 Operational Resilience Implementer course and the [OR-5] OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course.
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If you have any questions, click to contact us. |
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