Planned business continuity tests have been postponed until next summer due to the market disruptions of the past couple of years, The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada said Tuesday.

In a notice to members, IIROC reports that a group of dealers had planned an industry test of their respective business continuity plans (a scheduled follow up to a similar test that was completed in September 2007). However, it now says that “the market events of 2008 and 2009 made the execution of the subsequent BC Plan test, originally scheduled for 2009, difficult to execute and therefore IIROC has postponed the next test until June 2010.”

Additionally, it reports that IIROC’s Contingency Planning sub-committee adopted a long range plan for conducting industry wide testing of dealers’ plans. Tests will be conducted on a bi-annual basis following the upcoming test now slated for next June.

The notice says that the tests will use scenarios that have been agreed upon between IIROC and its members, which are designed to test continuity plans under a variety of conditions, and they will aim to involve each of the major service providers in the tests, as was done in 2007 when all major industry service providers participated (i.e. IBM SIS, Broadridge BPS, Broadridge Dataphile, Belzberg, IRESS, Reuters, TSX and TSX-V, the Bourse, CDS, CDCC and FundServ).

IE