Business continuity management typically covers the following elements:
implementation of data backup systems and redundant telecom lines,
definition of escalation procedures and identification of crisis management teams,
development of a crisis manual and regular rehearsals to practice emergency procedures,
creation of deputy roles for key business areas and mobilization of alternate staff in the event of pandemic incidents.
Like other central banks within the ESCB, the OeNB considers ensuring business continuity planning across the individual segments of the domestic financial market to be one of its core competences. The OeNB’s involvement is meant to ensure that the crisis plans of payment and securities settlement systems as well as systemically important financial market participants and infrastructure providers are
based on commonly accepted (national or international) standards,
aligned with each other, and
tested at regular intervals.
Besides the oversight principles and guidelines established by the Austrian payment systems overseer, the following standards and initiatives are relevant for business continuity plans of Austrian financial market agents:
Comparable information of other EU Member States as well as international or ESCB-wide standards listed below can be downloaded from the ECB’s website:
Standards for the use of EU securities settlement systems in ESCB credit operations, European Monetary Institute (EMI), January 1998.
Core Principles for Systemically Important Payment Systems, Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, January 2001.
Business continuity oversight expectations for systemically important payment systems, ECB, June 2006.
Oversight standards for euro retail payment systems, ECB, June 2003.
Oversight framework for card payment schemes – standards, ECB, January 2008.
Electronic money system security objectives, ECB, May 2003.
Recommendations for securities settlement systems, CPSS/IOSCO, November 2001.
Recommendations for central counterparties, CPSS/IOSCO, November 2004.
High level principles for business continuity, Joint Forum, August 2006.
The interdependencies of payment and settlement systems, CPSS, June 2008.