Security & Risk Management Seminar

Pandemic Planning & Response Techniques

Presentation Abstract

Having an institution-wide Business Continuity (Disaster Recovery) Plan -- a plan that includes additional techniques for addressing a pandemic -- is a regulatory requirement for every form of financial institution. A disaster is often defined as any event that will significantly and negatively impact an institution's operations. A traditional Business Continuity Plan is developed to serve as the foundation for recovering and managing business operations that may be affected by traditional, short-lived disasters caused by natural, human-caused or technological disasters. Institutions plan for these types of disasters to affect them for an average of 14-21 days.

Addressing the likely effects of a pandemic, however, becomes a complex subset of the institution's Business Continuity Plan. A pandemic is often defined as an epidemic or outbreak in humans of infectious diseases that has the ability to proliferate rapidly throughout a widespread geographical area. Unlike natural, human-caused or technological disasters, which have limited life spans, pandemics are predicted to affect a significant geographical area in cycles for up to eighteen (18) months -- and affect the health of more than 40% of the area's population. A smart institution uses its existing Business Continuity Plan as the foundation for incorporating more complex measures that responding to a pandemic will likely require.

What institutions often overlook most frequently are the non-traditional issues relating to resource allocation during a pandemic -- the necessary "people, places and things" that are identified during the risk assessment process. Unlike traditional disasters, which generally contain a predictable timetable of events and their responses, a pandemic often contains numerous variables that continue to change multiple times during the pandemic's cycle. The institution must maintain realistic and practical solutions to resolving the critical resource allocation issues that are likely to impact the institution, including:

l        People: Employees, insiders, institution-affiliated parties (and their families), customers, vendors and third-party service providers;

l        Places: Facilities that the institution owns, manages, maintains, leases or controls; and

l        Things: Assets, equipment, supplies, records and documents.

This presentation focuses upon the core components of the FFIEC's Interagency Statement on Pandemic Planning and the lessons learned by more than 2700 financial institutions during the FBIIC/FSSCC's Pandemic Flu Exercise of 2007. Those core components include a(n):

l        Developing a program of prevention;

l        Documenting a strategy for responding to various stages of pandemic outbreak;

l        Constructing a comprehensive framework of facilities, systems and procedures to insure the continuing operation of critical functions;

l        Creating a testing program; and

l        Managing an oversight program to ensure that ongoing reviews and updates are in place.

You will learn pandemic prevention and business recovery strategies, planning techniques and action tactics that you can use yourself -- and that you can then teach to others within your institution. You will also learn how to identify the real sources of pandemic-related loss exposure within your institution; the obvious and not-so-obvious methods for using your institution's resources effectively -- before and during any type of disaster; and the most successful methods for managing the maintenance and recovery effort until you can reinstall all of your institution's components.

Presentation Topics

l        What Will Examiners Expect From Your Institution's Pandemic Plan?

l        How Can Your Institution Prevent Or Mitigate A Pandemic's Effects?

l        What Resource Allocation Issues Should The Business Continuity Plan & The Pandemic Plan Address?

l        How Should You Calculate Risks To Each Business Function?

l        How Should Your Institution Test Its Pandemic Plan?

l        What Documentation Should You Prepare?

Presentation Objectives

This presentation is designed to help you:

l        Identify and describe the institution's components that are most likely to be affected during any disaster -- and particularly a pandemic

l        Conduct an institution-wide risk assessment that emphasizes effective resource allocation

l        Assess the impact of this risk assessment upon the institution and its resources

l        Design or recommend appropriate changes to the institution's existing resource allocation process

Presentation Audience

l        Security Officers

l        Business Continuity Team members

l        Board of Directors

l        Auditors

l        Human Resources Managers

l        Facility Managers

l        Training Managers

l        Compliance Officers

Presentation Tools

l        Workbook text

l        Links to additional resources

Last updated on March 14, 2008