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U.S. weighs financial markets disaster plan: report
U.S. weighs financial markets disaster plan: report
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has launched a review of disaster planning for the financial markets, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
The move was prompted by concerns about Wall Street's ability to withstand a terrorist attack, natural disaster or flu pandemic, the newspaper said.
In one of his first acts in the post, the FT said Paulson had asked the president's working group on financial markets to assess the improvements made since the September 11 attacks on the United States five years ago.
The FT said there was continued Wall Street concern about the resilience of power and telecommunications services, adding the attacks exposed weaknesses in the industry's disaster planning and closed the equity market for four days.
Experts say financial services companies have improved the resilience of their operations, the FT said. But some senior Wall Street figures are concerned that the utilities, on which financial markets are highly dependent, have made less progress, it added.
U.S. Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Parsons was quoted as saying the utilities had made "tremendous improvements."
But, he added: "We remain concerned about how to provide better resilience in telecommunications, which is the financial sector's single biggest dependency."
A Treasury Department spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on the FT report.
? Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.
LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has launched a review of disaster planning for the financial markets, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.
The move was prompted by concerns about Wall Street's ability to withstand a terrorist attack, natural disaster or flu pandemic, the newspaper said.
In one of his first acts in the post, the FT said Paulson had asked the president's working group on financial markets to assess the improvements made since the September 11 attacks on the United States five years ago.
The FT said there was continued Wall Street concern about the resilience of power and telecommunications services, adding the attacks exposed weaknesses in the industry's disaster planning and closed the equity market for four days.
Experts say financial services companies have improved the resilience of their operations, the FT said. But some senior Wall Street figures are concerned that the utilities, on which financial markets are highly dependent, have made less progress, it added.
U.S. Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Parsons was quoted as saying the utilities had made "tremendous improvements."
But, he added: "We remain concerned about how to provide better resilience in telecommunications, which is the financial sector's single biggest dependency."
A Treasury Department spokesperson was not immediately available for comment on the FT report.
? Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.