When the World Trade Centre was hit by terrorists last year, 60% of
telephone land lines in lower Manhattan were put out of action.
Large institutions' communication systems were hit hard and the New
York financial markets were forced to close for four days.
A year on, how much better prepared to cope with systemic disaster
is the financial services industry? In the weeks and months
following September 11, continuity planning and operational
resilience (nobody, it seems, cares to use the phrase disaster
recovery) was a priority for every business. Institutions that had
been well prepared realized that no plan is perfect and set to work
on those issues they had not thought to plan for. Firms that were
less well prepared looked to step up their business continuity
plans and some that were ill prepared began to think seriously
about the issue.
Everyone became acutely aware of the...
