From regulation to resilience: How financial firms are evolving their cloud strategies

 While the approaches to compliance vary across regions, depending on the respective local regulatory framework, one theme stands out: operational resilience is a shared priority for both firms and regulators.

• Cloud strategies are shifting: Financial services firms from around the globe have made changes or updates to their cloud strategies partially in response to data privacy, security and sovereignty regulations, according to a new LSEG survey.
• Compliance approaches differ by region: The approaches that firms take to meeting their cloud compliance obligations vary as jurisdictions are at different stages of creating their cloud rulebooks.
• However, firms and regulators alike seem to understand the importance of operational resilience as a way to reduce outages and enhance their strategies.

In a recent LSEG survey, 84% of respondents say they have changed or updated their cloud strategies in response to data privacy, security and sovereignty regulations, with more than a quarter (28%) making extensive changes. Amid these shifts, operational resilience has emerged as a shared priority for both firms and regulators, reflecting a common goal to strengthen cloud stability and reduce disruption.

The survey is based on research commissioned by LSEG that was conducted online by Phase 5, an independent marketing research and consulting company, from November 2024 through March 2025. A total of 453 financial services executives around the globe completed the survey. Nearly two-thirds (63%) of survey respondents are primary decision-makers for financial market data and IT solutions in their organisation. The survey covered 12 countries.