Business continuity planning has reached a more steady state

There several things — filing our taxes comes to mind — which we tend to delay until we absolutely have to do them. This is also the case with Business continuity planning (BCP). A disaster occurs, and board members demand that management do something about BCP. Time passes, and these demands become less urgent. Observers of Wall Street, however, now say that attention to BCP in financial services has now reached a steady state, more or less, as examlified by a growing trend toward the virtualization of trading platforms and other services.

Wall Street & Technology’s Melanie Rodier quotes Alex Tabb, a partner at Boston-based TABB Group who covers crisis and continuity services, to say that planning for catastrophes has been at the forefront of companies’ priorities since 9/11, “but by 2003, companies realized just how expensive implementation of a BCP strategy could be, and started trying to cut costs…. It’s a cyclical trend. Firms spend more, then cut back.” With the U.S. market currently in buoyant shape, companies once again are investing in their business continuity planning, Tabb adds.

Other features of the landscape have changed. Companies are now required to comply with NASD Rule 3510 and NYSE Rule 446, which require that members create business continuity plans which include contingencies for providing customers with access to their funds and securities during a disaster, data backup and recovery, an alternate physical location for employees, and communication among the firm and its employees. Tabb asserts, however, that the upswing in interest in business continuity is not tied to a specific event or regulation. “The trend isn’t tied to terrorism or hurricane hysteria,” he says. “It’s more subtle.”

You may want to read Rodier’s discussion of the state of BCP, and the companies offering products and solutions aimed to assist in it.