The EBA's Cloud Recommendations Leave Banks Expecting More

ANALYSIS: The European Banking Authority (EBA) should give more detailed direction to banks and other financial institutions on the steps they need to take to comply with financial regulation when outsourcing business operations to the cloud.

The regulator's recently finalised recommendations for financial institutions on cloud computing would have been more effective had they included greater detail in a number of areas where uncertainty remains as to how cloud outsourcing activities can be arranged to meet the regulatory requirements.

A strained message from the EBA

The EBA cites technological neutrality and future-proofing concerns as the reason for not providing more detailed direction. At the same time, however, the EBA makes clear that in its view the recommendations must be read as subordinate to a pre-existing broader set of financial guidelines on outsourcing that have been in place since 2006 – the Committee of European Banking Supervisors (CEBS)