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financial services industry may be affected
more than any other. For example, the
Federal Reserve and SEC as part of their
"Sound Practices to Strengthen the Resilience
of the U.S. Financial System," propose
the following disaster recovery/business
continuity objectives:
- Rapid recovery and timely resumption
of critical operations following a wide
scale, regional disruption;
- Rapid recovery and timely resumption
of critical operations following the
loss or inaccessibility of staff in
at least one major operating location;
- • A high level of confidence,
through ongoing use or robust testing,
that critical Business Continuity/Disaster
Recovery arrangements are effective
and compatible;
- Maintenance of a sufficient "out-of-region"
IT capability (such as two sites with
totally separate and independent labor
pools and infrastructure) in order to
meet the recovery and resumption objectives.
The agencies pose the
question "what will be the minimum distance
required of qualifying enterprises between
primary and backup facilities?" Though
not yet a formal requirement, the agencies
suggest that a 200-300 mile separation
of such facilities may be required.
Industry experts believe
these proposals will be the basis of new
legislation or regulations to which all
U.S. financial institutions will need
to conform.
"IT executives in the
financial services sector should immediately
evaluate, and modify where necessary,
their disaster recovery and business continuity
." "If these definitions, audit points,
and requirements enumerated are, in fact,
released as formal regulations, the impact
upon disaster recovery and/or business
continuity plans could be enormous. While
the suggested requirements for business
recovery and process resumption times
are expressed in terms of two to four
hours, equally threatening is the suggestion
that qualifying enterprises may have to
maintain an alternative backup site that
is 200 - 300 miles away from the primary
site."
- Robert
Frances Group, Inc. ( http://www.rfgonline.com
).
1"Interagency
Concept Release: Draft Interagency White
Paper on Sound Practices to Strengthen
the Resilience of the U.S. Financial System."
For full text of the white paper, and
comments submitted, visit the SEC website
at http://www.sec.gov/rules/concept/34-46432.htm.
The document number is Release No. 34-464432,
File No. S7-32-02.
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