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Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery

28 January 2009 - 29 January 2009

The eighth annual Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in the Financial Services Sector conference takes place Wednesday 28 - Thursday 29 January 2009 at Copthorne Tara Hotel, Kensington, London.

The conference will be chaired by John Milne, Head of Business Continuity Management at the Financial Services Authority (FSA). David Strachan, Director of Financial Stability (FSA) will be taking part in the opening discussions of the conference.

The credit crisis is without doubt the biggest test of business continuity and disaster recovery planning that financial institutions have faced in living memory. A severe loss of confidence has frozen many financial markets, dried up liquidity and raised serious questions about the risk management strategies that have become accepted as the norm. Could this have been anticipated? Should it have been factored into the business continuity plans of market participants? The answer to these questions is probably not, but what is certain is that the lessons learnt from the current crisis will have to be integrated into business continuity plans in the future.

Not withstanding the current market conditions and the special challenges they bring, the normal business continuity challenges remain. Indeed in the introduction the Resilience Benchmarking Project: June 2008 Callum McCarthy, Chairman, Financial Services Authority wrote "The sharp deterioration in the global financial environment since last summer also helps explain why senior management’s focus may be elsewhere. Nevertheless, it is important that senior management ensure their organisations develop appropriate plans to deal with the consequences of a major operational disruption such as terrorist attack or pandemic, both of which continue to be assessed as significant risks." Additionally the recent shutdown which afflicted the London Stock Exchange during peak trading hours shows how vulnerable key IT systems can be.

Now in its eighth year, this conference has become an important forum for the discussion of business continuity and disaster recovery issues in the financial services sector.

For further details of Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery in the Financial Services Sector see http://www.cityandfinancial.com/conferences/?sector=7&id=235

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