In November 2009, the Tripartite Authorities carried out the fifth in a series of Market-wide Exercises (MWEs) designed to assess and improve the UK financial sector’s ability to deal with major operational disruption. 76 organisations (13 for the first time) and approximately 5,000 staff from across the financial sector took part in the 2009 MWE, which ran for two mornings, on 17 and 20 November.
The scenario for the exercise took into account the experience of widespread flooding across the UK in the summer of 2007 and the snow of February 2009, and coincided with actual severe weather and flooding in some parts of the country. It centred on a prolonged period of heavy rain, followed by a substantial storm that left a path of destruction and widespread flooding in many regions, affecting office buildings, critical infrastructure and homes. It also caused severe transport disruption in cities and nationwide, with road and bridge closures and resultant high levels of staff absence, together with intermittent power outages and telecommunications failures (affecting both voice and data communications).
The main challenge of the scenario was to try to sustain financial services in the face of large-scale staff absences, denial of access to buildings and uncertainty over the scale and duration of the disruption. The exercise also included an opportunity to plan for a return to normal business.
Many firms had to relocate to recovery sites not only as a result of flooded offices, but also as a result of power and telecommunication outages affecting the systems they could use at their main sites. Key suppliers and counterparties were affected by the storm and were unable to provide normal levels of service.
Staff were absent not only as a result of the transport disruption but also due to domestic issues, such as having to evacuate flooded homes or needing to care for children/the vulnerable. The use of postcodes in the absence model highlighted to participants how the geographic distribution of their staff could affect the resilience of the firm.
To find out more about what happened and what actions will be taken to further improve the resilience of the financial sector, see the report below. Additional information about the 2009 MWE, including the results of the feedback surveys and a full list of participating organisations, can be found in the 'Further Data' document, also below.
Market-wide Exercise 2009 Report [PDF]
Market-wide Exercise 2009 Further data [PDF]
