The securities industry has scheduled a business continuity test for next fall, where it will explore how business would function if downtown Toronto were off limits.

The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada announced Thursday that an industry-wide test of business continuity plans will next take place on Sept. 10, 2011. The testing scenario will be the “inaccessibility of downtown Toronto”.

The first industry-wide BCP test took place in September 2007, and it was expected that they would occur bi-annually after that. However, the financial crisis prevented a test in 2009, and the G20 meeting in Toronto this past June disrupted plans for a test then.

IIROC says that all the major service providers will be taking part in the test, including Alpha Trading Systems, Belzberg, Broadridge BPS, Broadridge Dataphile, CDCC, CDS, Chi-X Canada ATS Ltd., CNSX Markets Inc., Fidessa, FundSERV, IBM Canada, IRESS, ITS, Omega ATS, The Bourse de Montreal, TriAct and TSX.

Participation is voluntary, but IIROC strongly urges all dealers to participate in these tests “as they represent a valuable opportunity for [dealers] to supplement their respective mandatory annual tests which are required under IIROC regulation.”

IE