FSSCC annual report published Created in 2002 in the wake of 9/11 under Homeland Security Presidential Directive 7, FSSCC is a private-sector group of financial institutions and industry associations representing virtually every aspect of the US financial services sector- from clearing and settlement organizations, to banks, securities exchanges, and credit unions. The council develops and coordinates major policy issues for the private sector regarding the protection of the critical financial infrastructure, working directly with the US Treasury Department under general policies set by the US Department of Homeland Security. "The financial sector has made tremendous progress to ensure its resiliency to withstand both manmade and natural disasters," said Donald F. Donahue, sector coordinator and FSSCC chairman. "Since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the sector has been challenged by a number of events, including the Northeast power outage in 2003, the elevation of the threat level for financial institutions in 2004, and most recently, Hurricane Katrina. In each case, the sector has demonstrated its capacity to withstand such disruption and preserve the ability of individuals, businesses, and others to conduct their financial affairs." "At the same time, we recognize that while the sector accomplished much last year, building on the success of previous years, there is really no end point to its efforts," Donahue added. "Ensuring the safety and security of the financial services industry is a long-term proposition that must recognize and take into account new and emerging threats, such as a potential avian flu pandemic. This annual report is but a point along that continuum, a snapshot of where the industry stands today." "As this report shows, 2005 was a year of both challenge and accomplishment for the financial services sector," said D. Scott Parsons, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Critical Infrastructure Protection and Compliance Policy of the Treasury Department. "The FSSCC is vitally important to our efforts to coordinate infrastructure protection efforts across the financial sector and rooted in the President's goals and vision for the Treasury Department - a vision that is based on a shared commitment by the federal government, the financial services sector, and state and local authorities." Among the accomplishments of FSSCC and financial sector members in 2005 were these: * Strengthening the overall resilience of the US financial system by meeting the business continuity standards spelled out in the 2003 Interagency Paper on Sound Practices to Strengthen the Resilience of the US Financial System, issued by the US Federal Reserve Board, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and Securities and Exchange Commission. * Enhancing sector-wide preparedness for communication and collaboration in a crisis through participation in the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, a private-sector group formed in 1999 to deliver integrated physical and cyber alert information to thousands of financial institutions and whose direct membership increased last year by 200 percent. * Demonstrating the sector's ability to continue operations in times of crises through extensive testing and simulation that included the largest test ever - more than 150 financial institutions - in the securities and futures markets and participation by FSSCC members in the Department of Homeland Security's TopOff3 exercise in Connecticut and New Jersey . * Promoting local infrastructure protection and recovery through regional coalitions, marked by the creation of FloridaFIRST, a partnership of public and private organizations formed to strengthen the sector's resilience against hurricanes and other state-wide emergencies. * Playing a critical role in supporting efforts to assess and restore financial services to communities devastated by last year's hurricanes, particularly Hurricane Katrina. * Continued strong collaboration with the public sector, reflected in the sector's creation of a Research and Development Committee, which will work principally with the Treasury Department and Science and Technology Division of the Department of Homeland Security, to promote new technologies, policies, and procedures to further enhance the sector's resilience FSSCC also made available to its members and the general public a number of reports dealing with a wide range of topics, including sector preparations for a possible avian flu pandemic, lessons learned from phishing attacks (the use of fraudulent emails designed to obtain account information from consumers), and the need for regional infrastructure protection coalitions, to name a few. All are available on the FSSCC web site at www.fsscc.org The FSSCC annual report, "Protecting the US Critical Financial Infrastructure: 2005 in Review," is available at www.fsscc.org/annual2005.pdf . The appendix of the report details specific achievements by FSSCC member organizations.
•Date: 22nd March 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector |
