If a natural or man-made disaster struck your office, could you get back online within 24 to 48 hours? What if death or disability sidelined your owner or key players? Being able to maintain business continuity has become a huge deal in recent years due to the emergence of unusually severe weather events such as last year’s Hurricane Sandy. For this reason, financial regulators are reminding all industry players to make sure their business continuity plans (BCPs) are reviewed and tested at least once a year.
To that end, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s (CFTC) Division of Swap Dealer and Intermediary Oversight issued a staff advisory on BCP. This follows a joint review by regulators in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, which caused widespread damage to Northeastern states and closed U.S. equity and options markets for two days in October 2012.
“Market reliability and resilience are vital to investors and to the fair and efficient operation of capital markets,” said SEC’s Office of Compliance Inspections and Examination (OCIE) Director Andrew Bowden. “In partnership with our fellow regulators at FINRA and the CFTC, we are sharing these lessons learned from Superstorm Sandy to help industry participants better prepare for future events that threaten to disrupt market operations.”