If you are a Head of Internal Audit or Chief Risk Officer at a regulated payment bank in India, this playbook was built for you.
Operating under the Reserve Bank of India's strict supervision, your role demands rigorous validation of operational resilience, ICT risk controls, and third-party governance. With increasing regulatory scrutiny on technology dependencies and service continuity, you are expected to demonstrate compliance not only with domestic mandates but also with emerging global standards modeled after DORA and Basel III. The challenge lies in aligning fragmented risk frameworks, coordinating across risk, IT, and audit teams, and producing auditable evidence that satisfies both internal governance and external examiners.
Traditional approaches, engaging international consulting firms or building frameworks internally, come with significant cost and time burdens. Big-4 advisory support for operational resilience alignment typically ranges from EUR 80,000 to EUR 250,000. Developing an equivalent framework in-house would require a dedicated team of 3 to 5 full-time specialists working over 4 to 6 months, diverting critical resources from core compliance activities. This playbook delivers the same structural rigor and audit-ready artifacts for a one-time cost of $395.
What you get
| Phase | File Type | Description |
| Foundation | Operational Resilience Policy Template | Customizable policy document aligning with RBI Master Directions, DORA Article 18, and Basel III Pillar 2 operational risk requirements, including roles, escalation thresholds, and review cycles. |
| Foundation | ICT Risk Governance Charter | Defines accountability for ICT risk ownership, change management, and vendor oversight, structured to meet RBI's expectations for board-level oversight. |
| Assessment | 7 Domain Assessments (30 questions each) | Structured self-assessment tools covering ICT risk, third-party resilience, incident response, business continuity, data replication, internal audit validation, and governance. Each includes scoring logic and risk rating guidance. |
| Assessment | 30-Question ICT and Third-Party Risk Assessment Workbook | Sample chapter included: a ready-to-deploy assessment tool with embedded RBI and DORA-aligned controls, evidence prompts, and risk scoring. |
| Evidence | Evidence Collection Runbook | Step-by-step guide for gathering, labeling, and storing audit evidence across 14 control categories, including cloud service agreements, DR test logs, and incident post-mortems. |
| Evidence | Document Retention Schedule (RBI-aligned) | Specifies retention periods for risk and audit artifacts per RBI Master Directions, including version control and access logging requirements. |
| Planning | Audit Prep Playbook | Timeline-driven checklist for internal audit teams, covering pre-audit scoping, walkthroughs, evidence submission, and examiner response protocols. |
| Planning | RACI Matrix Template (Operational Resilience) | Pre-mapped responsibility assignment matrix for 22 key resilience activities across Board, CRO, CIO, Internal Audit, and Business Units. |
| Planning | Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) Template | Hierarchical task list for implementing operational resilience controls, with duration estimates and dependency mapping. |
| Reporting | ICAAP Resilience Module Template | Structured narrative and quantitative reporting format for inclusion in the Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process, aligned with Pillar 2 operational risk expectations. |
| Reporting | Board Reporting Dashboard (PowerPoint) | 12-slide presentation template for quarterly resilience reporting to the Board, including KRI trends, test results, and gap status. |
| Mapping | Cross-Framework Control Mapping Matrix | Excel-based matrix linking 187 individual controls across DORA, Basel III, RBI Master Directions, ICAAP, and COSO ERM, with control IDs and implementation status flags. |
| Tools | Risk Heatmap Generator (Excel) | Automated tool that converts assessment scores into visual heatmaps by domain, process, and third-party relationship. |
| Tools | Control Gap Tracker (Excel) | Dynamic register for logging deficiencies, assigning remediation owners, and tracking closure timelines with auto-alerts. |
Domain assessments
Each of the 7 domain assessments contains 30 targeted questions, evidence prompts, and scoring logic to enable consistent evaluation across the organization:
- ICT Risk Management: Evaluates policies, change control, system inventory, and cyber resilience aligned with RBI's Technology Risk Management guidelines.
- Third-Party and Outsourcing Resilience: Assesses due diligence, contract clauses, performance monitoring, and exit planning for critical vendors.
- Incident Response and Escalation: Tests the maturity of detection, classification, communication, and post-incident review processes.
- Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery: Reviews BCP scope, RTO/RPO definitions, test frequency, and data backup integrity.
- Data and System Replication: Validates geographic redundancy, failover mechanisms, and data consistency across primary and backup environments.
- Internal Audit Validation: Measures the independence, coverage, and follow-up rigor of audit testing related to operational resilience.
- Operational Resilience Governance: Examines board reporting, policy enforcement, training, and accountability structures.
What this saves you
| Activity | Traditional Approach | With This Playbook |
| Develop resilience policy | 40, 60 hours of legal and risk team time | Edit-ready template, 4, 6 hours to customize |
| Conduct third-party risk assessment | Build checklist from scratch, 20+ hours | Use pre-built 30-question workbook, 2 hours to deploy |
| Prepare for RBI audit | 6, 8 weeks of cross-functional coordination | Follow audit prep playbook, reduce prep time by 50% |
| Map controls across frameworks | Manual spreadsheet mapping, prone to gaps | Use pre-built cross-mapping matrix, 100% coverage |
| Train audit team on DORA-style expectations | External training or self-research | Embedded guidance in assessments and templates |
Who this is for
- Heads of Internal Audit at RBI-regulated payment banks seeking to validate operational resilience controls
- Chief Risk Officers responsible for ICAAP and Pillar 2 compliance
- Compliance Managers tasked with aligning with emerging DORA-like regulatory expectations
- IT Risk Leads overseeing third-party and ICT risk programs
- Operational Resilience Coordinators implementing BCP and DR frameworks
- Audit Committee members requiring structured reporting on technology risk
- Consultants supporting Indian financial institutions with RBI compliance projects
Cross-framework mappings
This playbook provides explicit control alignment across the following regulatory and governance frameworks:
- Basel III (Pillar 2, Operational Risk and Supervisory Review Process)
- DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act, EU 2022/2554)
- RBI Master Directions on Risk Management and Interconnectedness (updated 2023)
- ICAAP (Internal Capital Adequacy Assessment Process)
- COSO ERM (Enterprise Risk Management , Integrated Framework, 2017)
What is NOT in this product
- This is not a software tool or SaaS platform; all deliverables are downloadable templates and documents
- It does not include legal advice or regulatory interpretation specific to your institution
- No implementation services, consulting hours, or training sessions are bundled
- It does not cover credit risk, market risk, or financial reporting compliance outside operational resilience
- There are no automated workflows, dashboards, or real-time monitoring features
- It is not tailored to small finance banks, NBFCs, or non-payment bank entities
Lifetime access and satisfaction guarantee
You receive lifetime access to all 64 files with no subscription and no login portal. The materials are delivered as downloadable files, yours to use, modify, and distribute within your institution. If this playbook does not save your team at least 100 hours of manual compliance work, email us for a full refund. No questions, no friction.
About the seller
The creator has spent 25 years developing compliance frameworks for financial institutions globally. They have documented 692 regulatory and industry standards, built 819,000+ cross-framework control mappings, and trained over 40,000 risk and audit practitioners across 160 countries. Their work is used by compliance teams in regulated banking, insurance, and fintech organizations to reduce implementation time and improve audit outcomes.
Need this for your team? We offer site licenses starting at $2,500 for up to 25 users. Reply to this page or DM Gerard directly on LinkedIn.
