FSA assesses impact of floods on firms

The FSA has assessed the impact severe weather, including flooding, would have on regulated firms.

It worked with about 80 businesses, including IFAs, small firms and banks, to examine their preparedness for office evacuation and their abilities to set up quickly elsewhere, at what it calls ‘disaster recovery sites'.

The two-day exercise took place just days before heavy flooding in northwest England forced dozens of businesses to shut and hundreds of individuals to be evacuated from their homes.

Since 2002, following terrorist attacks in New York and Washington which saw the regulator's Canary Wharf HQ temporarily close, the FSA has worked to ensure firms are "properly prepared" when operations are disrupted. It followed up this work in 2006 by assessing firms' preparedness in case of a flu pandemic.

Advisers say the floods in Cumbria have encouraged them to re-assess their disaster recovery plans.

Nicholas Manterfield, an IFA with Brookfield Financial Planning, says: "We back up all our systems so, if our office was hit by flooding, we could effectively be back up and running the same day. But disaster recovery does hit the radar when things like this happen."