[OR] [MLRE] [E1] [C4] Composing the OR Team

Chapter 4

What Should the Composition of Malaysian Life Reinsurance’s Operational Resilience Team Be?

Purpose of the Chapter

Operational resilience is not achieved through policy documents alone; it is built through people, accountability, and structured coordination. For a national reinsurer such as Malaysian Life Reinsurance (MLRe), resilience must extend beyond business continuity planning into governance, risk ownership, technology stability, regulatory alignment, and crisis leadership.

This chapter is designed to clarify how the right team composition enables MLRe to anticipate, withstand, adapt to, and recover from operational disruptions while continuing to deliver critical services to cedants, policyholders, and regulators.

The objective of this chapter is to guide senior management, risk leaders, and operational heads in understanding the desired structure, roles, and reporting lines of an effective Operational Resilience Team.

By the end of this chapter, the reader should be able to visualise a clear governance model, understand role segregation and accountability, and appreciate how cross-functional collaboration strengthens MLRe’s resilience posture in alignment with regulatory expectations and international standards.

Proposed Operational Resilience Team Structure for Malaysian Life Reinsurance

An effective Operational Resilience Team at MLRe should follow a three-layer governance structure: Strategic Oversight, Executive Coordination, and Operational Execution.

1. Strategic Oversight Layer

Board & Senior Management Accountability

At the highest level, operational resilience must be owned by the Board and Executive Committee. This ensures alignment with corporate strategy, risk appetite, and regulatory expectations.

Key Roles:

• Board Risk Committee (oversight and challenge function)
• Chief Executive Officer (ultimate accountability)
• Chief Risk Officer (executive sponsor of operational resilience)

Responsibilities:

• Approve the resilience framework and policies
• Endorse impact tolerances for critical business services
• Review severe but plausible scenario outcomes
• Ensure regulatory compliance and resource allocation

This layer ensures resilience is treated as a strategic priority, not merely a compliance exercise.

2. Executive Coordination Layer

Operational Resilience Steering Committee

This cross-functional committee drives implementation, monitors progress, and ensures integration across business units.

Chair: Chief Risk Officer

Members may include:

• Chief Operating Officer
• Chief Financial Officer
• Chief Information Officer / Head of IT
• Head of Underwriting
• Head of Claims
• Head of Actuarial
• Head of Compliance
• Head of Human Resources
• Head of Corporate Communications

Responsibilities:

• Identify and approve critical business services
• Set and monitor impact tolerances
• Oversee dependency mapping (people, process, technology, third parties)
• Coordinate scenario testing and lessons learned
• Escalate material resilience gaps to the Board

This layer ensures resilience is integrated across underwriting, claims, actuarial, finance, and IT functions—critical for a reinsurer where interdependencies are high.

3. Operational Execution Layer

Operational Resilience Working Group

This is the hands-on team responsible for implementation, testing, monitoring, and documentation.

Core Functional Leads:

Key Responsibilities:

• Map critical business services and supporting resources
• Conduct scenario testing (cyber, system outage, third-party failure, pandemic, data corruption)
• Track resilience metrics and KRIs
• Maintain playbooks and incident response procedures
• Document remediation plans and track closure

This layer transforms resilience from theory into measurable capability.

Desired Structural Characteristics for MLRe

To be effective, MLRe’s Operational Resilience Team should embody the following principles:

• Clear Accountability: Each critical business service must have a named Service Owner.
• Segregation of Duties: Oversight, implementation, and assurance functions must remain distinct.
• Cross-Functional Integration: Underwriting, claims, IT, actuarial, and finance must collaborate regularly.
• Regulatory Alignment: Structure must support reporting and engagement with Bank Negara Malaysia.
• Continuous Improvement: Scenario testing outcomes must feed directly into remediation planning.
• Crisis Activation Protocol: Pre-defined escalation thresholds and crisis leadership hierarchy must exist.

Reporting and Escalation Model

• Working Group → Reports monthly to Steering Committee
• Steering Committee → Reports quarterly to Board Risk Committee
• Immediate escalation → CEO & Board in material disruption

This ensures transparency and timely decision-making during stress events.

Capability Enhancements Over Time

To future-proof the team, MLRe may progressively:

• Establish a dedicated Head of Operational Resilience role
• Integrate real-time resilience dashboards
• Incorporate advanced scenario simulations
• Embed resilience metrics into performance KPIs
• Align resilience reporting with enterprise risk management

Operational resilience should evolve alongside digital transformation and emerging threats.

The strength of Malaysian Life Reinsurance’s operational resilience will ultimately depend not only on policies and frameworks but on how clearly responsibilities are defined and how effectively teams collaborate across functions. A structured, three-tier governance model ensures that resilience is owned at the highest level, coordinated strategically, and executed operationally with discipline and accountability.

By establishing a well-composed Operational Resilience Team, MLRe positions itself to move beyond compliance toward true adaptive capability. This structure enables the organisation to respond decisively to disruption, protect stakeholders, maintain market confidence, and uphold its critical role within Malaysia’s financial ecosystem. When resilience is embedded into governance, culture, and daily operations, it becomes a competitive strength rather than a reactive necessity.

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.