Avian Flu (Pandemic) has been in the news for some time on an almost continuing basis. The Garland Group conducts IT controls Reviews based on the FFIEC guidelines and this question has come up with a number of financial institutions we audit who are debating about including this item as a portion of the Business Continuity Plan.

Responses from examiners indicate that a pandemic is not required in a BCP at this time. However, they recommend that financial institutions begin looking at how to handle loss of key staff or loss of significant numbers of staff. It is generally though that from 15% to 40% of the work force will not be able to work because of their being ill or family illness if a pandemic hits the United States.

If the financial institution is ready to move ahead with adding this topic to their Business Continuity Plan (disaster recovery) Set up a separate section in the bank-wide BCP for “Absence of Personnel� or other similar heading.

TGG has identified several different topics that the bank will have to work through and build a plan according to their needs and resources. They are: Personnel, Equipment, Video/teleconferencing, Cross Training, Management, Medical, Outsourcing, Supplies and Testing.
We will follow up at a later date with specifics in the different topics.

By Gary Lauman, Senior Security Consultant

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