LONDON: The Financial Services Authority is subjecting its constituents in the country to a simulated disaster today in order to assess their level of endurance and response. Explaining the plan, an FSA spokesperson said it will be a virtual desk-based play-acting in which a series of events will unfold and the participants will have to deal with them as if these are really happening.
A similar test was conducted last year, when terrorist bombings were simulated. "This year, it could be a natural disaster or an economic one," the spokesperson said.
In July last as bombs hit the London subway, London's financial markets, where trillions of pounds worth of transactions take place daily, kept going, although there were large scale interruptions and communication hang-ups. The FSA, the Bank of England and the Treasury had implemented a system whereby a secret chatroom came into being, which helped keep the financial markets function without interruption. A website is already in existence since the 11 September 2001 World Trade Center episode in the U.S.
FSA said the disaster simulation will be the largest of its kind and some 80 firms will participate. These will include brokerages, insurers, banks, related government institutions and the police. The details are kept under wraps to provide a sense of reality.
This will be the second such simulation and the first to be done on a nationwide basis. The exercise promises to be the “largest business continuity exercise of its type ever undertaken”, where the three regulators -- the FSA, the Bank of England and the Treasury -- will be jointly leading the participants to ensure that the system does not collapse.
The simulation has been devised by management accountancy firm KPMG and specialist consultancy Crisis Solutions. The disaster will be just virtual and desk-bound and there is no physical evacuation of any buildings planned.
Posted
on : Mon, 28 Nov 2005 08:25 GMT | General News
By : Mark Richardson
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