The Investment Dealers Association of Canada reports that an industry-wide business continuity test carried out earlier this year was successful.

On September 15, the industry conducted the first industry-wide continuity test. The objective of the exercise was to test the ability of members of the IDA and providers of market, settlement and accounting services (utilities) to operate through an emergency using backup sites, recovery facilities and backup communications capabilities across the industry. A key part of the exercise was to ensure firms could execute trades using their alternate sites.

The IDA organized the test on a voluntary basis, and the test was successful, it reports. It says that 142 different connections between the organizations were attempted and 94% were successful. Most firms thought that the test was very useful. “They believe that there was value in the resultant continuity planning discussions between members and the major utilities. Further, they are interested in building on the test to conduct further, more complex tests involving more participants,” it reports.

It says that 33 members of the IDA participated in the test. The firms participating in the test account for 68% of the revenue of all IDA firms. The test involved trades in equities, debt, derivatives and mutual fund products.

Eleven utilities including exchanges, clearing organizations, service bureaus and organizations providing connectivity to the exchanges, also took part in the test. The participating utilities were The Montréal Exchange, TSX, Canadian Derivatives Clearing Organization, CDS Clearing and Depository Services, FundSERV, Broadridge BPS, Broadridge Dataphile, IBM SIS, Belzberg, IRESS and Reuters.