MHSC
Senior Moderator
[FONT=Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif]Plans to keep cash flowing through flu outbreak[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
Jill Treanor
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Friday January 5, 2007
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]High street banks are working on bolstering their recovery strategies to ensure their branches and cash machines can stay open in the event of a flu pandemic.
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The need for an enhanced industry-wide policy has emerged from a mock exercise involving the Bank of England, Treasury and Financial Services Authority - the so-called Tripartite authorities - which found that "bottlenecks" were caused in the distribution of cash. Bank branches were also forced to close.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The major banks are now working with the cash-in-transit companies such as Securicor, Securitas and Group 4 to establish how to keep money moving around the country in the event of specialist drivers being unable to work.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]For six weeks starting in October, the authorities simulated 22 weeks of a flu pandemic which involved 70 financial services firms and 3,500 people around the world. As the exercise went on, the participants were forced to assume that up to 60% of employees were absent from work - not necessarily because they were struck by flu, but because schools had been shut or travelling to work was proving difficult. The "fear factor" was another reason for staff being absent.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The simulation found that the heaviest impact of the pandemic was on customer-facing businesses such as retail financial services, but even in the wholesale markets there was impact of reduced trading volumes. The report into the exercise said: "The distinguishing feature of a pandemic is that its main impact is upon the availability of personnel rather than on physical assets."[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]This caused bottlenecks with cash distribution - rather than an outright shortage of money - and also forced high street banks to close an increasing number of branches as the exercise went on.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]"A clear lesson learned from the exercise is that there would be much to be gained from developing a coordinated strategy for responding to these challenges," the report said. A series of workshops will held to follow-up on issues raised by the exercise, as will discussions with regulators elsewhere in the world.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The exercise is thought to have involved a number of scenarios as the impact of the flu spread, including the postponement of the FA Cup and a Robbie Williams concert.[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The authorities simulate a problem hitting the financial markets every year but this is the first time it chose an event which was not one caused by a "sudden impact" such as bombs or severe weather.[/FONT]
http://money.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329676899-110144,00.html
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
Jill Treanor
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Friday January 5, 2007
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]Guardian
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]High street banks are working on bolstering their recovery strategies to ensure their branches and cash machines can stay open in the event of a flu pandemic.
[/FONT][FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The need for an enhanced industry-wide policy has emerged from a mock exercise involving the Bank of England, Treasury and Financial Services Authority - the so-called Tripartite authorities - which found that "bottlenecks" were caused in the distribution of cash. Bank branches were also forced to close.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The major banks are now working with the cash-in-transit companies such as Securicor, Securitas and Group 4 to establish how to keep money moving around the country in the event of specialist drivers being unable to work.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]For six weeks starting in October, the authorities simulated 22 weeks of a flu pandemic which involved 70 financial services firms and 3,500 people around the world. As the exercise went on, the participants were forced to assume that up to 60% of employees were absent from work - not necessarily because they were struck by flu, but because schools had been shut or travelling to work was proving difficult. The "fear factor" was another reason for staff being absent.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The simulation found that the heaviest impact of the pandemic was on customer-facing businesses such as retail financial services, but even in the wholesale markets there was impact of reduced trading volumes. The report into the exercise said: "The distinguishing feature of a pandemic is that its main impact is upon the availability of personnel rather than on physical assets."[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]This caused bottlenecks with cash distribution - rather than an outright shortage of money - and also forced high street banks to close an increasing number of branches as the exercise went on.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]"A clear lesson learned from the exercise is that there would be much to be gained from developing a coordinated strategy for responding to these challenges," the report said. A series of workshops will held to follow-up on issues raised by the exercise, as will discussions with regulators elsewhere in the world.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The exercise is thought to have involved a number of scenarios as the impact of the flu spread, including the postponement of the FA Cup and a Robbie Williams concert.[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]The authorities simulate a problem hitting the financial markets every year but this is the first time it chose an event which was not one caused by a "sudden impact" such as bombs or severe weather.[/FONT]
http://money.guardian.co.uk/print/0,,329676899-110144,00.html
[FONT=Geneva,Arial,sans-serif]
[/FONT]