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The IT security situation in Germany is tense – the pressure on financial services providers to ensure their compliance with current regulations is increasing. At the same time, opportunities are arising for them to strengthen their cyber resilience.

According to the 2024 IT security report by the German Federal Office for Information Security (Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, BSI), the threat situation in cyberspace is tense. The damage caused by cyberattacks in Germany is estimated at over EUR 200 billion a year, with a rising trend. In 2024 alone, the Federal Criminal Police Office recorded over 131,000 cases of cybercrime. To make matters worse, according to the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienstleistungsaufsicht, BaFin), most of the weak spots are “predominantly self-inflicted”.

In response, legislators are tightening the requirements for ICT risk management and defining a minimum level of resilience measures. Regulatory requirements – such as DORA, the AI Act and the German Financial Market Digitalization Act (Finanzmarktdigitalisierungsgesetz, FinmadiG) – are constantly increasing, both in terms of the depth and breadth of the associated implementation obligations.

For financial services providers, this means that ICT risks must be managed just as consistently as any other type of risk. Strong IT compliance is just as essential as innovative, cost-efficient and holistic strategies to enhance cyber resilience.

With future-proof concepts, companies can not only meet regulatory requirements but also strengthen their IT security in a sustainable way. What initially feels like regulatory pressure can thus become an opportunity – to improve the stability of IT systems and protect them effectively against cyberattacks.