Business Continuity Planning (BCP) is an interdisciplinary concept used to create and validate a practiced logistical plan for how an organization will recover and restore partially or completely interrupted critical functions within a predetermined time after a disaster. The logistical plan is called a Business Continuity Plan. It ensures fast recovery from technical disaster i.e. e-IBS server failure, database crash.
A Business
continuity planning (BCP) identifies
an organization's exposure
to internal and
external threats and synthesizes hard and soft assets to
provide effective prevention and quick recovery for the organization, while
maintaining competitive advantage and value system integrity.
A business continuity
plan outlines the steps necessary for a company to operate in the wake of a
sudden and severe change to market conditions. Continuity plans can address
basic concerns, such as the chain of command in the event a company leader dies
or becomes extremely ill. Likewise, continuity plans reveal backup strategies
for drastic scenarios, such as labor disputes, patent lawsuits or distribution
bottlenecks.
Benefits
A comprehensive
business continuity plan forces leaders to review the weaknesses and threats to
their organizations from a detached perspective. While few business leaders
want to focus on negative "what if" questions, the process of
creating a continuity
plan can raise
concerns about employee
development, real estate
selection and intellectual
property security. Tight plans can assure teams that company leaders understand
how to turn on a dime during challenging times.
The pivotal role that
banking sector plays in the economic growth and stability, both at national and
individual level, requires continuous and reliable services. Increased
contribution of 24x7 electronic banking channels has increased the demand to
formulate consolidated Business Continuity Planning (BCP) guidelines covering
critical aspects of people, process and technology.
BCP forms a part of an
organization’s overall Business Continuity Management (BCM) plan, which is the
“preparedness of an organization”, which includes policies, standards and
procedures to ensure continuity, resumption and recovery of critical business
processes, at an
agreed level and
limit the impact
of the disaster
on people, processes
and infrastructure (includes IT);
or to minimize
the operational, financial,
legal, reputational and
other material consequences
arising from such a disaster.
Effective business
continuity planning is an important component in managing operational
risk. Financial institutions and their
TSPs should develop, implement, and test appropriate disaster recovery and
business continuity plans capable of maintaining acceptable retail
payment-related customer service levels.
Business continuity plans should be based on business impact analyses
and the relative importance of retail payment system products and services to
the financial institution.
For financial
institutions offering basic retail payment products and services (e.g.,
bankcard issuance, check item processing,
branch ATM access,
Internet banking services),
business continuity plans
should include appropriate recovery targets for each retail
product. The recovery targets should
consider the reliance on any third-party servicer in meeting their
objectives. Vendor management programs
should include provisions for the disruption and restoration of service at
service providers, including the consideration of service provider test plans.
For financial
institutions and service providers with complex retail payment operations,
business continuity plans should enable
restoration of service
within timeframes that
are reasonable for
internal business units,
other dependent financial
institutions, and counterparties.
Financial institutions providing significant card issuing, merchant
processing, EFT/POS, ACH, and retail payment-related Internet banking services
should also test these plans periodically with customer financial institutions
and counterparties to ensure plans are sufficient.