Highlights:
- As financial institutions and their customers prepare for Hurricane Irene,
lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina can be particularly helpful.
- The guidance, issued by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination
Council in 2006, highlights unique challenges created by significant storms,
including communication and power outages, destruction of facilities, and
interruption in availability of certain branches and ATMs.
- Business continuity plans generally worked well in enabling institutions to
meet these challenges and restore operations swiftly.
- Preparation is critical to the speed at which essential services can be
restored. Key lessons learned are:
- Anticipate disruptions in communication services and the ability of
critical staff to reach their assigned recovery area, possibly over
an extended period of time.
- Anticipate that financial institution operational facilities could
be damaged or destroyed, creating a need for alternate facilities.
The location of a back-up site can be critical to successful
recovery efforts.
- Be prepared to operate in a “cash only” environment.
- Recognize that a financial institution’s involvement in
neighborhood, city, state, and federal volunteer programs can
facilitate a community’s recovery from a catastrophic event.
Distribution:
FDIC-Supervised Banks (Commercial and Savings)
Suggested Routing:
Chief Executive Officer
Compliance Officer
Chief Lending Officer
Attachments:
Lessons Learned From Hurricane Katrina:
Preparing Your Institution for a Catastrophic Event
Contact:
Thomas F. Lyons at 202-898-6850, or tlyons@fdic.gov
Note:
FDIC Financial Institution Letters (FILs) may be accessed from the FDIC's Web
site at www.fdic.gov/news/news/financial/2011/index.html.
To receive FILs
electronically, please visit http://www.fdic.gov/about/subscriptions/fil.html.
Paper copies of
FDIC Financial Institution Letters may be obtained via the FDIC's Public
Information Center, 3501 Fairfax Drive, E-1002,
Arlington, VA 22226 (1-877-275-3342 or 703-562-2200).
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