Most recently, Hurricane Katrina underscored the critical role of business-continuity planning and disaster response for small businesses and small banks in local communities. Most financial institutions in the affected areas responded admirably to the extreme challenges posed by the hurricane and subsequent flooding, and the benefits of planning and preparation showed.
I am sure that many of you in the audience today have studied the lessons from Katrina and improved your own plans for dealing with business disruptions. But I want to offer a supervisory perspective on potential lessons for bankers. Banks, like businesses everywhere, can be subject to wide-scale disruptions resulting from both natural and man-made disasters.