Following a year that has often felt like an endless stress test, the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) will hold its biennial business continuity planning (BCP) exercise.
The self-regulatory organization has scheduled the next industry BCP test for Oct. 23, 2021.
“As with the previous IIROC-sponsored industry BCP test in 2019, the test date coincides with industry test dates in the United States to facilitate participation by market participants who have operations in both the Canadian and American markets,” IIROC said.
The 2021 test will include an incident response exercise, crises communications and a simulated trading exercise.
The test will also include a new “market disruption simulation component” so firms can evaluate the effectiveness of their incident response plans.
“This new component of the test will be developed with the Canadian Securities Administrators and structured as a hands-on simulation based scenario and incident response plan exercise,” IIROC said.
IIROC said its staff will contact dealers in January 2021 to confirm their involvement in the upcoming test, and that it will form an industry working group early next year to oversee test preparations.