The Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada (IIROC) has scheduled its next biennial industry business continuity planning test for Saturday October 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.
According to the IIROC notice:
The 2021 industry BCP test is comprised of three elements:
- Incident Response Plan (IRP) exercise mandatory for all test participants
- Crises Communication Centre exercise mandatory for all test participants
- Simulated Trading exercise mandatory for IIROC Dealer Members who are ‘participant dealers’ above a specific trading threshold.
Incident Response Plan exercise
The 2021 industry BCP test will include a new market disruption simulation component so that all participants may test and assess whether their IRPs and protocols are up-to-date and effective. 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.
The purpose of the incident response plan exercise is for all test participants to gain insights into:
- The adequacy of their IRPs under a simulated industry-wide market disruption event
- The efficiency and effectiveness of the coordination and communication within and between organizations and regulators
- Opportunities to improve their IRPs.
IIROC will form an industry Working Group in early 2021 to oversee the preparation for the BCP test.
Read the IIROC notice (PDF).
