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Business Continuity Planning at the Bank of Japan

September 5, 2003
Bank of Japan

Click onsai0309a.pdf (34KB) to download the full text.

Introduction1

The September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States have demonstrated the significance of business continuity planning addressing wide-scale disruptions and prompted many financial institutions at home and abroad to review and strengthen their own arrangements. To encourage and assist these moves by financial institutions, and thereby ensure effective functioning of payment and settlement systems and the stability of the financial markets in Japan even in times of disaster, the Bank of Japan has taken a number of measures. For example, it has discussed business continuity planning with financial institutions that hold current accounts at the Bank (hereafter the financial institutions). The Bank has provided relevant parties with opportunities to discuss how the overall resilience of the financial markets in Japan can be strengthened. Moreover, the Bank has released three papers on business continuity. They are (1) "Sound Practices on Business Continuity Management of Financial Institutions in Preparation for Disruption of Operational Sites," released in March 2002; (2) "Results of a Questionnaire Study on Business Continuity Management," released in February 2003; and (3) "Business Continuity Planning at Financial Institutions," released in July 2003.2 The third paper comprehensively delineates "sound practices" for developing and implementing business continuity plans.

In this paper, the Bank has outlined its current business continuity arrangements, in response to a number of inquiries from the financial institutions. Although some points require further consideration and some details have been omitted for security reasons, the Bank has nevertheless decided to release the paper to facilitate effective business continuity planning by the financial institutions.

It should be noted that the arrangements explained in this paper have not yet been coordinated with outside parties. The Bank will undertake the necessary coordination as it further reviews and strengthens the arrangements. It should also be noted that, although the Bank's arrangements include preparations to address extremely severe conditions resulting from a disaster, the Bank does not expect all the financial institutions to be prepared for such conditions in the same manner.

  1. This is an English translation of the Japanese original released on July 25, 2003. Arrangements described in the paper are subject to change.
  2. The first and second papers are available only in Japanese.The third paper is available in English.