A Practitioner's Guide To IT Outsourcing

Last week, the European Central Bank ("ECB") released its horizontal analysis of the most recent Outsourcing Registers submitted by significant institutions (SIs). The report highlighted the continued dominance of IT-related outsourcing arrangements and recognised that SIs still have work to do to address deficiencies in the governance of these arrangements, as well as in the areas of IT Security and the management of cyber risks.

Key Trends Identified

The ECB report highlights the main developments in the types of outsourcing arrangements of SIs based on the Outsourcing Registers submitted in December 2024. While it is important to consider the nature, scale and complexity of the entities in scope of the review, the developments highlighted in this report have been observed across the wider financial services industry, especially as firms increase their adoption of technology-reliant operating models and work to comply with the EU's Digital