The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority have handed the UK 's banks a three - month deadline in which to demonstrate their resilience to a cyber attack , despite having a back - up plan enabling operations to resume within two days . In a joint statement , the two banks said these attacks threatened " financial stability , the viability of individual firms and financial market failures " , and warned of fines and sanctions for banks which did not comply . The move highlighted a disastrous IT upgrade at TSB and the banking network 's recent blackout .
The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority have handed the UK's banks a three-month deadline in which to demonstrate their resilience to a cyber attack, including having a back-up plan enabling operations to resume within two days. In a joint statement, the two organisations said cyber attacks threatened "financial stability, the viability of individual firms and financial market infrastructures", and warned of fines and sanctions for banks which did not comply. The move follows a disastrous IT upgrade at TSB and the Visa network's recent blackout.