By NATARIO McKENZIE
Tribune Business Reporter
nmckenzie@tribunemedia.net
Hurricane Matthew’s impact has underscored the need for Bahamian companies to implement business continuity management (BCM) and disaster recovery strategies, the Bahamas Financial Services Board’s (BFSB) chief executive said yesterday.
Tanya McCartney, addressing a one-day Cyber Defense and Business Continuity symposium hosted by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company (BTC), said: “As it relates to business continuity, we need only to think back to the recent Hurricane Matthew - which I am sure many of us wish we could forget - to see how important it is to have contingencies in place to ensure continued business operations.
“There are laws and regulatory guidelines which govern both data protection and business continuity here in the Bahamas, placing duties on financial institutions to ensure that there are adequate controls in place to mitigate security breaches and business disruption.”
Ms McCartney added that the need to have business continuity plans in place became evident after the September 11 terror attacks.
“Closer to home, imagine if BTC or the Bahamas Broadcasting Corporation did not have business continuity plans in place after hurricane Matthew?” she said.
“We would not have been able to communicate or know what was going on around us.”
Ms McCartney added that the Central Bank of the Bahamas has issued Business Continuity Guidelines for its licensees.
“Every financial institution should have a Business Continuity Management (BCM) strategy that is all encompassing – a strategy outlining policies, procedures and standards for ensuring that its operations can be maintained or recovered expeditiously should there be an interference or break in delivery of service,” she said.
“This should be embodied in a documented Business Continuity Plan (BCP), which sets out precise action to be taken in the case of a business disruption. That is, the procedures, processes and systems necessary to continue or restore the operation of an organisation in the event of a disaster or major operational disruption.”
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