Large financial services companies in London are well prepared
for any disruptions stemming from anti-capitalist demonstrations at
the G20 meeting tomorrow.
London's financial district is on high alert for expected
protests from
anarchists,
environmentalists and anti-capitalists during the G20 meeting
in Canary Wharf.
Workers are being encouraged to avoid the City with those that
can working from home. Employees that do go to the office are being
encouraged to dress casually so they do not look like bankers.
The disaster recovery and business continuity plans of the major
banks will be put into action in case there is major disruption to
business. IT departments will play a critical role in ensuring
business is not interrupted.
James Martin, former IT COO Europe at investment bank Lehman
Brothers, said all the large financial services in London will be
well prepared for possible disruption. "The City of London and
Canary Wharf are major terrorist targets, so the IT departments are
well prepared for protests."
"The IT operations of these firms are set up to enable remote
working. Most of the IT is in secure datacentres with IT workers
able to access systems from other locations, and most of these
firms have multiple offices where people can base themselves."
He said business continuity and
disaster recovery plans are always at the top of a COO's agenda
in financial services anyway. "When I was at Lehman Brothers we had
to shut down the offices on 9/11 and in Canary Wharf you have a few
bomb scares every year."
A spokesman at the London Stock Exchange agreed that the nature
of financial services makes business continuity and disaster
recovery a top priority anyway.
With trades being completed in milliseconds the damage caused by
even short periods of network downtime can be disastrous. "We have
extensive back up in place including back up sites and the market
will run as normal," he added.
He said the company, which is based in the City, is not
encouraging people to work from home, but is leaving it up to
individual mangers to decide in co-ordination with workers.
HSBC, which is headquartered in Canary Wharf, said it has taken
some extra security precautions in co-ordination with the Canary
Wharf authority. But a spokesman said the company will operate as
usual. "We do not believe there is any reason for people to work at
home or for staff to change their dress on particular days."
He added that the company's IT infrastructure is built to
withstand disasters. "We have a sophisticated disaster recovery and
contingency process in place, but we do not expect to call on
it."
The Financial Services Authority said it would expect any
company it regulates to be able to continue operating if there were
any issues. "We do a lot of business continuity planning with all
our regulated banks. This includes if there are disasters such as
floods or terrorist attacks."
Jon Cosson, head of IT at stockbroker JM Finn, said the company
has been warned it could be a target because it is on the route of
a planned march. It also shares a building with a company that has
been named as a target.
But the company's IT should not be interrupted, he said.
"We have gone through our disaster recovery plan to make sure
everybody is aware of it. We have a disaster recovery site which
backs up in real-time so even if the office was smashed up the data
would be safe," said Cosson.
The
G20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors
from 20 countries and the European Union (EU). The main meeting is
at Canary Wharf's Excel centre on Thursday, but protests are
planned throughout the week with banks a major target. The
recession and the current economic turmoil that has been largely
blamed on banks is the backdrop to the talks.