Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2025/295 of 24 October 2024 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 of the European Parliament and of the Council with regard to regulatory technical standards on harmonisation of conditions enabling the conduct of the oversight activities

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION,

Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,

Having regard to Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 14 December 2022 on digital operational resilience for the financial sector and amending Regulations (EC) No 1060/2009, (EU) No 648/2012, (EU) No 600/2014, (EU) No 909/2014 and (EU) 2016/1011 (1), and in particular Article 41(2), second subparagraph, thereof,

Whereas:

(1) The framework on digital operational resilience for the financial sector established by Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 introduces a Union oversight framework for the information and communication technology (ICT) third-party service providers to the financial sector designated as critical in accordance with Article 31 of that Regulation.

(2) An ICT third-party service provider which decides to submit a voluntary request to be designated as critical should provide the receiving European Supervisory Authority (ESA) with all the necessary information to demonstrate its criticality according to the principles and criteria set out in Regulation (EU) 2022/2554. For this reason, the information to be included in the voluntary request application should be sufficiently detailed and complete to enable a clear and complete assessment of criticality under Article 31(11) of that Regulation. The relevant ESA should reject any incomplete application and request the missing information.

(3) The legal identification of ICT third-party service providers within the scope of this Regulatory Technical Standard should be aligned with the identification code set out in Commission Implementing Regulation adopted in accordance with Article 28(9) from Regulation (EU) 2022/2554.

(4) As a follow-up to the recommendations issued by the Lead Overseer to critical ICT third-party service providers, the Lead Overseer should monitor critical ICT third-party service providers’ compliance with the recommendations. With a view to ensure efficient and effective monitoring of the actions that have been taken or the remedies that have been implemented by the critical ICT third-party service providers in relation to these recommendations, the Lead Overseer should be able to require the reports referred to in Article 35(1), point (c), of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554, which should be intended as interim progress reports and final reports.

(5) For the purpose of the assessment specified in Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554, according to which Lead Overseer is obliged to evaluate whether the explanation provided by critical ICT third-party service provider is sufficient, the notification to the Lead Overseer by the critical ICT third-party service provider of its intention to follow the recommendations received should be complemented by a description of the actions and measures that have been taken to mitigate the risks outlined in the recommendations, along with their respective deadlines. Such explanation should take the form of a remediation plan.

(6) As the Lead Overseer is expected to assess the subcontracting arrangements of the critical ICT third-party service provider, a template needs to be developed for providing information on those arrangements. The template should take into account the fact that the critical ICT third-party service providers have different structures than financial entities.

(7) Once the recommendations to a critical ICT third-party service provider are issued by the Lead Overseer, and competent authorities have informed the relevant financial entities of the risks identified in that recommendations, the Lead Overseer should monitor and assess the implementation by the critical ICT third-party service provider of the actions and remedies to comply with the recommendations. Competent authorities should monitor and assess the extent to which the financial entities are exposed to the risks identified in these recommendations. With a view to maintain a level playing field while carrying out their respective tasks, particularly when the risks identified in the recommendations are severe and shared among a large number of financial entities in multiple Member States, both the competent authorities and the Lead Overseer should share among each other any relevant findings which are necessary for them to carry out their respective tasks. The objective of the information sharing is to ensure that the feedback of the Lead Overseer to the critical ICT third-party service provider in relation to the actions and remedies the latter is implementing takes into account the impact on the risks of the financial entities, and that the supervisory activities performed by the competent authorities are informed by the assessment carried out by the Lead Overseer.

(8) To allow for an efficient and effective sharing of information, the competent authorities should assess, as part of their supervisory activities, the extent to which the financial entities supervised by them are exposed to the risks identified in the recommendations. This assessment should be carried out in a proportionate and risk-based manner. The Lead Overseer should request the competent authorities to share the results of this assessment in the specific cases when the risks associated with the recommendations are severe and shared among a large number of financial entities in multiple Member States. To make the best use of the resources of the competent authorities, when asking to provide the results of this assessment, the Lead Overseer should always take into account that the objective of these requests is to evaluate the implementation of actions and remedies of the critical ICT third-party service providers.

(9) The European Data Protection Supervisor was consulted in accordance with Article 42(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council (2) and delivered an opinion on 22 July 2024.

(10) This Regulation is based on the draft regulatory technical standards submitted to the Commission by the ESAs.

(11) The Joint Committee of the ESAs has conducted open public consultations on the draft regulatory technical standards upon which this Regulation is based, analysed the potential related costs and benefits and requested the advice of the Banking Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1093/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3), the Insurance and Reinsurance Stakeholder Group and the Occupational Pensions Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1094/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4), and the Securities and Markets Stakeholder Group established in accordance with Article 37 of Regulation (EU) No 1095/2010 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5),

HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:

Article 1

Information to be provided by ICT third-party service provider in the application to be designated as critical

(a) name of the legal entity;

(b) legal entity identification code;

(c) name of contact person and contact details of the critical ICT third-party service provider;

(d) country where the legal entity has registered office;

(f) an estimation of the market share of the ICT third-party service provider in the Union financial sector and estimation of the market share per type of financial entity as referred to in Article 2(1) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 as of the year of submission of the application to be designated as critical and the year before that application;

(i) a list of the critical ICT third-party service providers included in the latest available list of such providers published by the ESAs pursuant to Article 31(9) of Regulation (EU) 2022/2554 that rely on the services provided by the applicant where available;

(k) information on a future business strategy in relation to the provision of ICT services and infrastructure to financial entities in the Union, including any planned changes in the group or management structure, entry into new markets or activities;

(l) identification of the subcontractors of the ICT third-party service provider which have been designated as critical ICT third-party service providers;

(m) any other reasons relevant for the ICT third-party service provider’s application to be designated as critical.

Article 2

Content, structure and format of the information to be submitted, disclosed or reported by critical ICT third-party service providers

(b) information about the organisational and group structure of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including identification of all entities belonging to the same group that directly or indirectly provide ICT services to financial entities in the Union;

(d) information about the critical ICT third-party service provider’s market share per type of services, in the relevant markets where it operates;

(e) information about the internal governance arrangements of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including the structure with lines of governance responsibility and accountability rules;

(f) the meeting minutes of the critical ICT third-party service provider’s management body and any other internal relevant committees, which relate in any way to activities and risks concerning ICT third-party services supporting functions of financial entities within the Union;

(g) information about the ICT security of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including relevant strategies, objectives, policies, procedures, protocols, processes, control measures to protect sensitive data, access controls, encryption practices, incident response plans, and information about compliance with all relevant regulations and national and international standards where applicable;

(h) information about technical and organisational measures to ensure data protection and data confidentiality, including personal and non-personal data, implemented control measures to protect sensitive data, access controls, encryption practices, data breach response plan; when in regards processing of personal data the ICT third-party service provider is subject to laws from third-countries, including third-country government access request, list of the countries and the laws applicable:

(i) information about the mechanisms the critical ICT third-party service provider offers to the Union financial entities for data portability, application portability and interoperability;

(j) information about the location of the data centres and ICT production centres used for the purposes of providing services to the financial entities, including a list of all relevant premises and facilities of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including outside the Union;

(k) information about provision of services by the critical ICT third-party service provider from third countries, including information on relevant legal provisions applicable to personal and non-personal data processed by the ICT third-party service provider;

(l) information about measures taken to address risks arising from the provision of ICT services by the critical ICT third-party service provider and their subcontractors from third-countries;

(m) information about the risk management framework and the incident management framework, including policies, procedures, tools, mechanisms, and governance arrangements of the critical ICT third-party service provider and of its subcontractors, including list and description of major incidents with direct or indirect impact on financial entities within the Union, including relevant details to determine the significance of the incident on financial entities and assess possible cross-border impacts;

(n) information about the change management framework, including policies, procedures, and controls of the critical ICT third-party service provider and its subcontractors;

(o) information about the overall response and recovery framework of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including business continuity plans and related arrangements and procedures, software development lifecycle policy, response and recovery plans and related arrangements and procedures, backup policies arrangements and procedures;

(p) information about performance monitoring, security monitoring, and incident tracking as well as information about reporting mechanisms related to service performance, incidents, and compliance with agreed-upon service level agreements (SLAs) and service level objectives (SLOs) or similar arrangements between critical ICT third-party service providers and financial entities in the Union;

(q) information about the ICT third-party management framework of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including strategies, policies, procedures, processes, and controls including details on the due diligence and risk assessment performed by the critical ICT third-party service provider on its subcontractors before entering into an agreement with them and to monitor the relationship covering all relevant ICT and counterparty risks;

(r) extractions from the monitoring and scanning systems of the critical ICT third-party service provider and of its subcontractors, covering but not limited to network monitoring, server monitoring, application monitoring, security monitoring, vulnerability scanning, log management, performance monitoring, incident management and measurements against reliability goals, such as SLOs;

(s) extractions from any production, pre-production and test system or application used by the critical ICT third-party service provider and its subcontractors, to provide directly or indirectly services to financial entities in the Union;

(t) compliance and available audit reports as well as any relevant audit findings, including audits performed by national authorities in the Union and outside the Union where cooperation agreements with the relevant authorities provide for such information exchange, or certifications achieved by the critical ICT third-party service provider or its subcontractors, including reports from internal and external auditors, certifications, or compliance assessments with industry-specific standards. This includes information about any type of available independent testing of the resilience of the ICT systems of the critical ICT third-party service provider, including any type of threat led penetration testing carried out by the ICT third-party service provider;

(u) information about any assessments carried out by the critical ICT third-party service provider upon its request or on its behalf evaluating the suitability and integrity of individuals holding key positions within the critical ICT third-party service provider;

(v) information about any remediation plan to address recommendations pursuant to Article 3, and relevant related information to confirm remedies have been implemented;

(w) information about available employee training schemes and security awareness programs, including, where relevant, information on investments, resources and methods of the critical ICT third-party service provider in training its staff to handle sensitive financial data and maintain high levels of security;

(x) information about the activities of the critical ICT third-party service provider and financial statements, including information on the budget and resources related to ICT and security.

Article 3

Information from critical ICT third-party service providers after the issuance of recommendations

(a) interim progress reports and related supporting documents specifying the progress of the implementation of the actions and measures set out in the report provided by the critical ICT third-party service provider to the Lead Overseer within the timeline defined by the Lead Overseer;

(b) final reports and related supporting documents specifying the actions that have been taken or the remedies that have been implemented by the critical ICT third-party service provider in order to mitigate the risks identified in the recommendations received.

Article 4

Structure and format of information provided by critical ICT third-party service providers

(a) follow the structure indicated by the Lead Overseer in its information request;

(b) clearly locate the relevant piece of information in the submitted documentation.