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8/7/25, 10:55 AM The urgency of digital sovereignty in a geopolitically unstable world - The Catalyst
requiring financial institutions and critical infrastructure providers to ensure

operational resilience.

While it is true that geopolitical dynamics have put digital sovereignty into the

spotlight, it would be a misconception to think of this as a fresh challenge, as at its

core digital sovereignty is about resilience and autonomy. Organisations need to
prove they can operate independently, even when global political shifts or vendor

decisions disrupt their operations.

Prepare for unintended consequences

In April 2022, the Amsterdam Trade Bank (ATB), a financially stable Dutch
institution, was forced into bankruptcy. This wasn’t due to poor management or

insolvency, but rather because of sanctions imposed on its Russian parent

company, Alfa Bank.

When the US, the EU and UK enacted sanctions against Russian entities in
spring 2022, the ripple effects were catastrophic for ATB. Despite ATB being fully

compliant with Dutch and EU laws, service providers, again being respectful with

the same laws and sanctions, were obliged to abruptly terminate critical cloud
services, including email and core banking operations. Without access to cloud-

based workspaces and business software suites, ATB lost the ability to

communicate internally or with customers, leading to its sudden collapse.

While the sanctions against Alfa Bank have been implemented in a different

context this case nevertheless underscores a critical distinction when it comes to

the question of sovereignty: Own compliance does not guarantee autonomy. Even

legally sovereign organisations can fail if they lack operational resilience. ATB’s
total dependence on their service providers left it defenceless when they withdrew

support, a stark warning against vendor lock-in.

While “digital sovereignty” refers to government-mandated control, such as GDPR
or data localisation laws, “digital autonomy” is about an organisation’s ability to

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