Understanding CIMB’s structure, operating environment, risk profile, and strategic goals grounds the resilience implementation approach described later in this eBook.
CIMB Group has a strong regional footprint across Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines, with over 33,000 employees and nearly 29 million customers.
Its diversified portfolio includes consumer, commercial, wholesale and Islamic banking, supported by robust digitalisation and risk frameworks that are central to its operational stability and long-term competitiveness.
Recognising that operational resilience extends beyond traditional risk management, this chapter sets out to define CIMB’s unique organisational attributes and prepare readers to approach resilience not as a compliance checklist, but as a strategic enabler of business continuity and stakeholder trust.
This chapter marks the start of the operational resilience journey, grounding the reader in a clear, practical understanding of CIMB Bank as an organisation before any resilience frameworks, tools, or implementation steps are introduced.
Operational resilience cannot be effectively designed in abstraction; it must be shaped by an institution’s business model, operating environment, regulatory obligations, and strategic priorities.
Using CIMB Bank as a case study, this chapter helps readers understand why resilience begins with organisational self-awareness—what the organisation does, how it delivers value, and where it is most vulnerable to disruption.
The purpose of this chapter is to equip readers with the foundational insight needed to approach operational resilience in a structured and meaningful way.
This foundation ensures that subsequent chapters move beyond theory, enabling readers to translate resilience principles into practical, institution-specific actions.
For CIMB, understanding its organisational DNA requires reviewing how it integrates resilience into its governance, risk management, digital transformation and strategic objectives.
At the group level, CIMB’s Enterprise-Wide Risk Management (EWRM) Framework governs risk identification, assessment, monitoring, and mitigation across all risk types—including operational risks—forming the backbone of resilience capability.
CIMB’s Investment Bank operates within a dynamic and interconnected ASEAN financial ecosystem, where market volatility, cross-border exposures, regulatory changes, and technology disruptions are constant.
Its proximity to global capital flows and regional markets means operational shocks — whether cyber events or infrastructure failures — can propagate rapidly.
The Bank Negara Malaysia Discussion Paper identifies technology failures, third-party dependencies, and cybersecurity threats as primary sources of operational disruption for financial institutions, necessitating resilient infrastructure, governance, and business continuity planning.
In the investment banking context, high-frequency trading systems, settlement platforms, and treasury interfaces are examples of critical processes that require robust resilience controls, given the systemic impact of outages or degraded performance.
A strong operational resilience capability requires a cross-functional team that blends expertise in risk, technology, compliance, operations, and business leadership. Typical roles include:
Board/Senior Executive Sponsor: Champions resilience at the highest level, aligning strategic priorities with organisational risk appetite.
Chief Operational Resilience Officer (CORO): Central point of accountability for resilience strategy, risk assessment, scenario testing, governance and continuous improvement.
Risk and Compliance Specialists: Translate regulatory expectations (e.g., BNM’s resilience principles) into policies, risk assessments, and assurance.
Technology and Cybersecurity Leads: Ensure systems are designed for high availability, secure by design, and tested for failure scenarios.
Business Continuity and Crisis Management Coordinators: Lead scenario planning, crisis response, recovery plans, and resilience exercises.
This team draws from both internal stakeholders and key third-party providers to ensure resilience planning reflects the full operational footprint.
Digital Banking Platforms: Online banking, mobile apps and APIs that serve millions of retail and business customers daily.
Payment and Clearing Systems: Real-time payment processing, settlement engines and interbank messaging that form the backbone of financial transactions.
Treasury & Markets Operations: A high-availability trading infrastructure is essential for liquidity management and asset valuation.
Customer Support Channels: Contact centres and support functions that must remain operational during disruptions.
Identifying these services — and setting Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) appropriate to their criticality — is a foundational resilience practice encouraged in regulatory guidance.
Several attributes make CIMB unique and directly influence its resilience strategy:
Diverse Regional Footprint: Operating across multiple jurisdictions adds complexity to risk oversight and regulatory compliance.
Digital First Agenda: CIMB’s investment in digitalisation and unified API platforms enhances resilience by promoting scalability, security, and redundancy.
Cybersecurity Posture: A dedicated Security Operations Centre conducts real-time threat monitoring, penetration testing and incident response readiness — aligning with resilience expectations for cyber risk.
Sustainable Growth Strategy: Sustainability frameworks, including SME resilience initiatives, emphasise business continuity and adaptability in response to market shifts.
These characteristics not only shape CIMB’s resilience planning but also reflect broader strategic priorities that align with stakeholder expectations.
Setting clear, measurable goals is essential for CIMB’s resilience journey. These goals typically align with both internal strategic priorities and regulatory expectations:
Minimise Disruption Impact: Reduce service downtime to within established RTOs for critical services.
Strengthen Third-Party Risk Management: Enhance oversight of outsourced providers and dependencies that could amplify disruption risk.
Embed Resilience into Culture: Integrate resilience performance into KPIs, training, and decision-making processes.
Continuous Scenario Testing: Conduct regular resilience and crisis exercises to validate plans and identify areas for improvement.
Align with Regulatory Expectations: Ensure strategies meet emerging expectations from regional regulators, such as Bank Negara Malaysia’s emphasis on prevent, respond, recover and adapt principles.
These goals help CIMB transition resilience from a compliance exercise to a strategic imperative, positioning the Bank to withstand complex disruptions while maintaining operational stability and customer trust.
By the end of this chapter, readers should be able to identify critical business services, recognise key organisational characteristics that influence resilience decisions, understand the roles of governance and cross-functional teams, and appreciate how regulatory expectations, such as those set out in Bank Negara Malaysia’s 2025 Discussion Paper, shape resilience outcomes.
These goals help CIMB transition resilience from a compliance exercise to a strategic imperative, positioning the Bank to withstand complex disruptions while maintaining operational stability and customer trust.
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Operational Resilience in Practice: The CIMB Bank Approach |
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For organisations looking to accelerate their journey, BCM Institute’s training and certification programs, including the OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course, provide in-depth insights and practical toolkits for effectively embedding this model.
To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for the OR-300 Operational Resilience Implementer course and the OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course.
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