The Securities Industry Association, the Bond Market Association, the Futures Industry Association and the Financial Information Forum report that they conducted an industry-wide business continuity planning test on Saturday, as part of an ongoing initiative to verify and demonstrate the resilience of the securities markets. The test, which expanded on prior connectivity tests, included components for equities, fixed income, options, futures and settlement.

Over 150 firms participated and 30 of those firms registered and conducted tests for multiple corporate entities. Participants represented all sizes and types of firms – large, midsize and smaller, New York-based and regional.

During the test, firms and service bureaus accounting for more than 80% of the market’s normal order volume connected simultaneously using backup data centers, backup communications links, alternate trading sites and alternate operations facilities to place test orders, executions and settlement interactions.

There were no broad problems for any individual exchange or firm, and where issues arose, the vast majority were corrected when identified, allowing firms and exchanges to proceed with test orders. There were no problems that would have taken days to resolve or would have jeopardized operations in any major market segment, were they to occur in a real emergency.

“This week, we took another important step towards ensuring the ability of our firms, markets and utilities to collectively operate through an emergency,” said Don Kittell, executive vice president of the SIA, in a release. “Backup data centers, work area recovery facilities and backup communications capabilities across the industry performed exceptionally well.”

“The industry’s participation in this past Saturday’s test was superbly executed. The Street achieved its goal of testing firms’ back-up connectivity with “exchanges” in all markets,” said Joseph Sack, executive vice president of the Bond Market Association.

Members of the Financial Information Forum including the service bureaus of ADP, SunGard and Thomson participated as well. Manisha Kulkarni, executive director of the Forum said, “From the initial planning stages to conducting and reporting results, ADP, SunGard, and Thomson demonstrated their ability to manage business continuity testing in multi-client environments.”