They require strategic decisions. But in this regard, top management needs to understand the trade-offs first. This leads to another, overarching issue: scarce resources. Top management is often reluctant to allocate sufficient resources to an IT project. This is quite a common finding in our supervisory inspections. That puts long-lasting solutions out of reach.
While this may often be due to “short termism” (as IT projects often pay out only in the mid- or long term), it can also be caused by underestimating their value. 2/6  BIS central bankers' speeches  Let me now turn to a second bias of top management, namely underrating IT and cyber risks.