What is the role of your group?

The Incident Communications Group (ICG) is a UK Finance group that is invoked during systemic incidents to coordinate industry-wide communications, working closely with the UK Financial Authorities’ (HM Treasury, Bank of England, FCA) press teams.

Where does your group sit within the Sector Response Framework?

The ICG is a strategic level Sector Response Group within the Sector Response Framework (SRF), which sits alongside the strategic Cross Market Business Continuity Group (CMBCG) through which firms coordinate, share information, and respond to operational disruption.

The ICG is responsible for: 

• Designing and implementing a coordinated external communications plan across the financial sector. 
• Ensuring communications activity aligns with the Authorities Response Framework (ARF) for ensuring coherence between public and private sector messaging.
• Maintaining public confidence in, and the reputation of, the financial sector.

The ICG feeds into and takes strategic direction from the CMBCG. The ICG also liaises closely with the Business and Operational Continuity Committee (BOCC) – SRF Group Spotlight on the BOCC.

Who makes up the membership of your group?

The ICG is comprised of Heads of Media, Communications, or Corporate Affairs. In some firms, operational resilience specialists also participate where the communications function sits within those teams.

What triggers the invocation of your group?

The ICG is invoked in response to a major systemic incident affecting multiple firms across the financial services sector.

Examples include:

• One or more services are unavailable and likely to result in sector-wide impacts.  
• Disruption likely to cause harm to end customers, clients, or third parties.  
• Infrastructure failure restricting access to key systems required to deliver critical services.  

How does the group operate in practice?

The ICG does not meet on a regular basis and is instead convened in response to systemic incidents. When convened, the ICG: 

• Agrees industry messaging and communication approaches. 
• Develops communications collateral, including industry aligned messages and FAQs to support the sector response.
• Shares communications outputs, ensuring coherence with the financial authorities’ communications.

Recent highlights, lessons learned and useful links

In September 2025, the ICG participated in the Cross Market Operational Resilience Group (CMORG) technical exercise to rehearse its incident assessment, group invocation, and information sharing processes.

In October 2023, the ICG participated in a communications only test, focussing on the challenges the sector would face in the event of a power outage. This supported alignment on how the ICG, and the financial authorities would coordinate communications during an incident.

What should firms or stakeholders know about engaging with your group? 

Please contact the UK Finance press office if you need any more information: press@ukfinance.org.uk