
Business Continuity Planning
In today’s business landscape the ever-changing nature of threats, risks and global events presents real challenges to firms when managing and embedding business continuity planning. Having a strong and robust approach to business continuity is critical for any organisation and is a regulatory requirement for financial services firms. If disaster strikes, with no business continuity plan in place, the impacts to the business can be catastrophic, resulting in a loss of customers, revenue, reputation and regulatory sanctions.
The FCA’s renewed focus on ‘operational resilience’ highlights this in their handbook, and as such, all firms should have a plan that is tested at least annually, with clear owners, roles and responsibilities for key staff in the event of a disaster.
Mutual Governance can perform a health check on your business continuity plan or provide one for you by examining the following:
– The quality of the plan. Are actions, owners and key stakeholders all familiar with the plan and how to initiate in the event of a disaster?
– The resilience of the plan. Does the plan really stand up in the event of a disaster, is it appropriately tested on a regular basis?
– The depth of the plan. Does the plan cover all elements needed in the event of a major disaster? Does it cover customer communications, regulatory communications, people management, facilities, IT and telephony?
– The key stakeholders that are critical in the plan. Does it ensure that all parties (including 3rd party) are incorporated in a disaster response e.g. IT, Building Mgt and all the various parties in the supply chain?
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