DORA Compliance
The Digital Operational Resilience Act (DORA) is changing how financial entities manage technology risk, resilience, and accountability.
For many organisations, the challenge isn’t understanding what DORA is, it’s understanding how to comply in a way that strengthens resilience without disrupting the business.
At GRC Solutions, we help organisations turn DORA from a regulatory obligation into a practical framework for operational confidence.
DORA: a shift from compliance to resilience
DORA goes beyond traditional ICT controls. It brings together risk management, incident response, resilience testing, and third-party oversight under a single regulatory framework. This raises important questions for regulated organisations:
Common challenges organisations face with DORA
We regularly see organisations struggling with:
- Fragmented ownership of ICT risk and resilience
- Limited visibility of critical systems and dependencies
- Third-party and cloud risk that’s difficult to evidence
- Incident response plans that haven’t been fully tested
- Uncertainty around regulatory expectations and timelines
DORA brings these challenges together, but it also provides a clear opportunity to address them properly.
Our approach: structured, proportionate, and outcome-led
We help you understand whether DORA applies, how it applies, and what proportional compliance looks like based on your organisation, services, and risk profile.
Through a structured DORA gap assessment, we evaluate ICT risk management, resilience, incident handling, and third-party oversight against regulatory expectations.
We support the design and implementation of practical controls, policies, and processes — aligned with existing frameworks such as ISO 27001, NIS2, and operational resilience.
DORA places strong emphasis on testing. We help validate resilience through scenario testing, attack simulation, and incident response exercises.
DORA is not a one-off exercise. We provide continued support to help you maintain compliance, monitor risk, and remain regulator-ready.
How GRC Solutions supports DORA compliance
Our DORA services are modular and scalable, allowing you to focus on what matters most:
- DORA Readiness & Gap Assessments
- ICT Risk Management & Governance
- Third-Party & Cloud Risk Management
- Incident Response Planning & Testing
- Breach & Operational Resilience
- Advanced Testing & Attack Simulation
- Ongoing Managed GRC & Compliance Support
This ensures DORA strengthens your wider resilience posture, rather than sitting in isolation.
DORA as a foundation for long-term resilience
DORA Compliance FAQs
DORA (the Digital Operational Resilience Act) is an EU regulation designed to strengthen the digital resilience of financial institutions and their critical ICT providers. It applies to banks, insurers, investment firms, payment providers, fintechs, and certain third-party technology service providers operating in the EU.
The cost of DORA compliance varies depending on organisational size, complexity, existing controls, and regulatory exposure. Costs typically include gap assessments, governance improvements, resilience testing, third-party reviews, training, and independent assurance. Organisations with mature risk frameworks often require lower investment.
DORA does not directly apply to UK-only firms. However, UK organisations that operate in the EU, serve EU clients, or provide ICT services to regulated EU entities may still fall within scope. Many UK firms are also aligning with DORA as best practice.
DORA requires organisations to implement ICT risk management frameworks, incident reporting processes, resilience testing programmes, third-party risk controls, governance oversight, and digital operational resilience strategies. It also introduces formal accountability for senior management.
Non-compliance with DORA can result in regulatory fines, supervisory measures, remediation orders, and reputational damage. Penalties are applied by national competent authorities and vary depending on severity and impact.
Preparation usually starts with a DORA gap assessment, followed by strengthening ICT risk management, enhancing incident response processes, formalising third-party oversight, and establishing resilience testing programmes. Independent support can help prioritise actions and reduce risk.
DORA places strong emphasis on third-party risk management. Organisations must assess, monitor, and manage ICT suppliers, including cloud providers, and ensure contracts include resilience and audit rights. Critical providers may be subject to direct regulatory oversight.
ISO 27001 focuses on information security management systems, while NIS2 addresses broader cybersecurity regulation. DORA specifically targets operational resilience in financial services, covering ICT risk, testing, third-party oversight, and incident management. These frameworks complement each other.
Regulators typically expect documented risk assessments, resilience strategies, incident management procedures, supplier risk controls, governance records, testing results, training evidence, and audit trails demonstrating control effectiveness.
DORA does not require formal certification. However, organisations can demonstrate compliance through independent assessments, internal audits, resilience testing programmes, and alignment with recognised standards such as ISO 27001 and operational resilience frameworks.