[OR] [PTC] [E3] [C1] Starting Your OR Implementation

Chapter 1

Starting Your OR Implementation

Operational resilience has emerged as a critical capability for financial institutions as they navigate an increasingly complex risk landscape shaped by digital transformation, cyber threats, regulatory expectations, and evolving customer demands.

For Philippine Trust Company, building resilience is not merely about compliance—it is about ensuring the continuity of critical services that underpin customer trust, financial stability, and market confidence.

This third instalment,  Starting Your OR Implementation, represents the transition from conceptual understanding and planning into practical execution.

It builds upon the foundations established in the earlier eBooks—Understanding Your Organisation and Implementing OR Planning Methodology—which together provide the strategic context, governance structures, and methodological approach required for operational resilience.

This eBook is designed as a working implementation guide, capturing real submissions and structured outputs from business units across the organisation.

It reflects how operational resilience is operationalised at the ground level, translating frameworks into actionable processes and measurable outcomes.

Purpose of The Chapter

The purpose of this introductory chapter is to orient the reader to the intent, structure, and application of this eBook. It prepares operational resilience practitioners, business unit leaders, and risk professionals to:

• Understand how to execute the Operational Resilience (OR) framework in a structured and consistent manner
• Translate high-level methodologies into detailed, process-level deliverables
• Align business unit submissions with regulatory expectations, including guidance such as BSP Circular No. 1203
• Apply a training-led implementation approach guided by the BCM Institute

Ultimately, this chapter sets the stage for a hands-on journey where theory is transformed into practice, enabling organisations to embed resilience into their daily operations.

This eBook forms the third and final instalment in the series:

• eBook 1 – Understanding Your Organisation
  Establishes organisational context, operating environment, and resilience objectives
• eBook 2 – Implementing OR Planning Methodology
  Defines the structured methodology across the Plan and Implement phases
• eBook 3 – Starting Your OR Implementation (this volume)
  Focuses on execution, documentation, and validation of operational resilience capabilities

While the earlier volumes provide the “why” and “what,” this eBook delivers the “how”—detailing the actual implementation steps undertaken by business units.

Focus on Phase 2 [P2]: Operational Resilience in Action

Phase 2 of the Operational Resilience Planning Methodology is the point at which resilience concepts are embedded in day-to-day operations.

This eBook addresses the six key requirements of Phase 2 as requested by regulators globally,  namely:

1. Outline Detailed Processes (Phase 2 – Stage 1) [DP]
   Translating high-level business services into detailed, end-to-end operational processes that enable service delivery.
2. Map Dependency (Phase 2 – Stage 2) [MD]
   Identifying internal and external dependencies, including people, technology, data, facilities, third parties, and suppliers.
3. Map Processes and Resources (Phase 2 – Stage 2) [MPR]
   Establishing clear linkages between processes and the resources required to support them under normal and disrupted conditions.
4. Establish Impact Tolerances (Phase 2 – Stage 2) [iTo]
   Defining the maximum tolerable level of disruption for each critical business service, aligned with client harm, market integrity, financial stability, and regulatory expectations.
5. Identify Severe but Plausible Scenarios (Phase 2 – Stage 4) [SuPS]
   Developing stress scenarios that meaningfully challenge the organisation’s ability to remain within its defined impact tolerances.
6. Perform Scenario Testing (Phase 2 – Stage 4) [ST]
   Testing the organisation’s capability to withstand disruption and identifying vulnerabilities, control gaps, and areas for resilience enhancement.

Each of these requirements is explored in the context of the organisation’s operating model and service landscape.

The implementation effort is structured around the identification and analysis of seven Critical Business Services (CBS) within the Philippine Trust Company:

• CBS-1: Deposit and Account Services
• CBS-2: Payments and Funds Transfer Services
• CBS-3: Digital, ATM, and Branch-Based Customer Access
• CBS-4: Lending and Credit Services
• CBS-5: International Banking and Foreign Currency Services
• CBS-6: Trust, Fiduciary, and Investment Management Services
• CBS-7: Treasury and Liquidity-Related Market Services

Each CBS is analysed through the lens of process mapping, dependency identification, and scenario testing, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of vulnerabilities and resilience capabilities.

Each CBS is examined through the lens of process resilience, resource dependencies, tolerance thresholds, and scenario-driven vulnerabilities, enabling readers to understand not only what needs to be done, but how to do it in a structured, regulator-ready manner.

This eBook is designed for practitioners—risk managers, BCM professionals, operations leaders, compliance teams, and senior management—who are responsible for building, enhancing, or validating operational resilience capabilities.

It serves as both a hands-on implementation guide and a reference artefact, supporting consistency, traceability, and continuous improvement across the OR lifecycle.

This is a complimentary service offered by BCM Institute to organisations intending to implement an Operational Resilience project or enhance an existing Operational Resilience programme.

It is specifically designed to support organisations adopting the BCM Institute’s training-led implementation approach, where learning is directly integrated with real organisational deliverables.

For participants attending BCM Institute’s certification or competency-based training courses, this eBook serves as:

• A practical reference for applying training concepts to live organisational exercises,
• A structured guide for developing implementation artefacts, and
• A bridge between professional development and real-world resilience outcomes.

“Starting Your OR Implementation” represents the point where resilience becomes real—where strategies are tested, dependencies are exposed, and capabilities are validated.

For the Philippine Trust Company, this eBook is not just a guide—it is a working document that captures the organisation’s readiness to withstand disruption, protect its customers, and sustain critical services in an increasingly uncertain environment.

It is here that operational resilience moves beyond planning—and becomes a demonstrable, measurable, and continuously improving capability.

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