If you are a Chief Resilience Officer, Head of Operational Risk, or ICT Governance Lead at a Saudi Arabian financial institution, this playbook was built for you.
As regulatory expectations under SAMA's cybersecurity and operational resilience mandates continue to evolve, your team faces mounting pressure to demonstrate robust controls across ICT governance, third-party risk, incident response, and business continuity. With Vision 2030 driving rapid digital transformation and open banking initiatives, the complexity of maintaining compliance while enabling innovation has increased significantly. You are expected to produce auditable evidence, manage third-party dependencies securely, and report critical incidents within mandated timeframes, all without expanding headcount or budget. The risk of non-compliance is not just financial; it impacts licensing, customer trust, and strategic momentum.
Engaging external consultants from a Big-4 firm to develop a comparable operational resilience framework would cost between EUR 80,000 and EUR 250,000. Alternatively, dedicating internal resources would require 3 full-time compliance or risk professionals working for 4 to 6 months to research, align, and document controls across DORA, NIST CSF, and SAMA requirements. This playbook delivers the same structured output at a fraction of the cost: $395.
What you get
| Phase | File Type | Description | Count |
| Assessment | Domain Assessment Workbook | 30-question evaluation per domain with scoring guidance, risk ratings, and evidence references | 7 |
| Evidence & Documentation | Evidence Collection Runbook | Step-by-step instructions for gathering, labeling, and storing required artifacts for each control | 1 |
| Audit Preparation | Audit Prep Playbook | Checklist-driven guide to preparing for internal and external audits, including mock review templates and response workflows | 1 |
| Project Management | RACI Matrix Template | Pre-built responsibility assignment chart for all resilience activities across departments | 1 |
| Project Management | Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) | Hierarchical task list for implementing the full operational resilience program in phases | 1 |
| Cross-Reference | Cross-Framework Mapping Matrix | Detailed alignment table linking DORA, NIST CSF, and SAMA Cybersecurity Framework controls | 1 |
| Implementation | Guidance Notes | Contextual explanations for each domain, including implementation tips and common gaps | 52 |
| Total Files | 64 | ||
Domain assessments
1. ICT Governance and Oversight: Evaluates board and senior management accountability, policy frameworks, and decision-making structures for technology risk.
2. Third-Party Risk Management: Assesses due diligence, contract controls, monitoring, and exit planning for fintech partners and cloud providers.
3. Incident Management and Reporting: Reviews detection, escalation, response, and mandatory reporting processes for ICT disruptions.
4. Business Continuity Planning: Tests the adequacy of recovery strategies, alternate site readiness, and plan maintenance cycles.
5. Data Protection and Resilience: Examines data backup frequency, retention policies, encryption, and geographic redundancy.
6. Change Management and System Development: Verifies controls over software deployment, testing, and configuration changes.
7. Cyber Threat Intelligence and Monitoring: Measures capabilities in threat detection, log management, and security information and event monitoring.
What this saves you
| Activity | Traditional Approach | With This Playbook |
| Develop assessment questionnaires | 40, 60 hours of internal legal and risk team time | Ready-to-use templates included |
| Map DORA to SAMA requirements | External consultant engagement or 30+ hours of manual comparison | Pre-built cross-framework matrix provided |
| Prepare for regulatory audit | 2, 3 weeks of document collection and review cycles | Evidence runbook reduces prep time by 70% |
| Assign roles for resilience program | Multiple stakeholder meetings to clarify ownership | RACI template accelerates alignment |
| Implement third-party risk controls | Custom development per vendor relationship | Standardized assessment workbook for fintech partnerships |
Who this is for
- Chief Operational Resilience Officers responsible for end-to-end ICT continuity
- Heads of Cybersecurity and ICT Risk overseeing compliance with SAMA directives
- Compliance Managers tasked with aligning internal controls to DORA and national standards
- Internal Audit Leads preparing for technology resilience reviews
- Project Managers leading digital transformation or open banking initiatives
- Legal and Regulatory Affairs teams interpreting cross-border regulatory overlap
- Technology Governance Committees establishing oversight frameworks
Cross-framework mappings
This playbook includes a comprehensive mapping matrix connecting controls and requirements across:
- DORA (Digital Operational Resilience Act)
- NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF) v1.1
- SAMA Cybersecurity Framework (SCF) Version 2.0
Each control in the assessment workbooks references equivalent clauses and sub-clauses across all three frameworks, enabling unified implementation and audit defense.
What is NOT in this product
- This is not a software tool or SaaS platform , it does not include automated monitoring or dashboards
- No consulting services are included , implementation support must be arranged separately
- It does not cover anti-money laundering (AML), capital adequacy, or consumer protection regulations
- There are no training courses, webinars, or certification programs bundled with this purchase
- The playbook does not provide legal advice or substitute for official regulatory interpretation
- It is not tailored to insurance companies or non-bank financial institutions outside the banking sector
Lifetime access and satisfaction guarantee
You receive permanent download rights to all 64 files with no subscription, no login portal, and no recurring fees. The files are delivered in standard formats (DOCX, XLSX, PDF) for immediate use within your organization. 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
We have spent 25 years building structured compliance resources for financial institutions worldwide. Our team has analyzed 692 regulatory and industry frameworks and created 819,000+ cross-framework mappings to help organizations navigate complex requirements efficiently. Over 40,000 practitioners across 160 countries use our playbooks to reduce compliance overhead, accelerate audits, and strengthen governance without expanding staff.
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