Interagency report to Congress on financial system resilience The report discusses the efforts of private sector financial services firms covered by the Sound Practices paper to implement enhanced business continuity plans, and the extent to which implementation has been done in a geographically dispersed manner. The report says that “the regulated financial firms have made progress in implementing the Sound Practices paper. Even though the sound practices are guidelines, covered firms have agreed to implement them and are working closely with the agencies to meet supervisory expectations. In this regard, the core clearing and settlement organizations, which present the greatest potential risk to the operation of the financial system, have made significant investments in their operating infrastructures, and all have achieved substantial implementation of the sound practices. Firms that play significant roles in critical financial markets have completed or should complete during 2006 substantial implementation of the sound practices.” The three agencies come down firmly on the side of the current requirements, stating in the report that “the sound practices are an appropriate point of reference for mitigating the impact of a wide-scale disruption by all private sector financial services firms”. The agencies “do not believe that expanding the current scope of the application of the Sound Practices Paper would provide sufficient additional resilience to outweigh the costs to financial market participants”.
•Date: 3rd May 2006• Region: US • Type: Article •Topic: Financial sector |
