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Office of Business Continuity News Journal

Issue # 18, May 2010

January 12th -- Forever Remembered in Haiti’s History, as well


as Citi’s by Yanira Gonzalez, Regional CoB Team, in collaboration with Claude Jean, Haiti BRC
To view this article in French, click here. To view this article in Spanish, click here.

January 12th will forever be remembered in Haiti‘s history, as well as Citi‘s. A severe earthquake, with a
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magnitude of 7.0 hit Haiti, devastating its capital - Port-au-Prince, on Tuesday evening, January 12 2010
at 4:53:09 pm (local time). It lasted 35 seconds and caused significant loss of life and major damage to
buildings.

We received the call from the Country‘s BRC, Claude Jean around 5:15 pm. We could barely understand
him due to the noisy background, but you could sense the chaos over the telephone line. His voice was
tremulous. He had already assisted a few coworkers but it was too soon for him to realize the devastating
proportion of this earthquake. He was able to say ‗this is bad‘ and that a part of the building was affected.
He had not seen anything yet, and to make matters more difficult, he had lost his eyeglasses on his way
out. After we left him to continue assisting others, we activated the CMT but we were not able to talk to
him again until later that night, as his mobile phone no longer worked.

At the time of the earthquake, mainly employees from Operations were going through their close of day
processes. Almost 100% of the staff was in the building. It was just a few days after the year-end holidays
when most people were back in the office. Claude recalls that a majority of the employees were on the
first floor where Transaction Banking, Documentation, and CitiService units sat.

Later on January 12th, around 7 PM or so, we made contact with the Senior Country Operations Officer,
Rudy Gaspard, while he was walking down the streets on his way home. His car, as everybody else‘s,
was stuck at the office building. There was no transportation in the city. We will never forget the moment
he said ‗the building collapsed on us‘. We were disconnected while talking to him and communications
could not be re-established with him for 2 days, when he met the CSIS team who arrived on site on
January 14th.

The emails and calls started to come in. Colleagues from all over wanted to know the status of our
employees and premises. An email from Citi Dominican Republic was received. The earthquake was felt
on the other side of Hispaniola Island. The main building office in the capital of Santo Domingo
(Acropolis) was also evacuated. It was promptly established that there were neither injuries nor damages
to those premises.

In Haiti, as the night was approaching, the electricity was out, and the city was in darkness; all
telecommunications were down. All efforts were directed to getting Citi‘s regional teams into Haiti. This
could not materialize until 2 days later, when the airport was reopened and Haitian authorities allowed it.
At the time, there were rigid and limited regulations.

We tried to reach Gladys Coupet, our Country CoB Officer (CCO), but no one seemed to know where she
was. A couple of days later, we learned that bypassers assisted her to get out of the building. After a
brief start in a local hospital with a broken leg, Gladys was taken to the Domincan Republic. From there
she was in constant contact with Suresh Maharaj, her Managing Director and Caribbean and Central
American (CCA) ICG Head.

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

Margareth Graham, who was acting CCO, was not at the


bank at the time of the earthquake. Her first contact with
the region was via text message to a local Citi Haiti
employee. Formal communication was sent to the region
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on January 13 . Marareth was on site and met a CBS
news crew that came through the Domincan Republic.
They allowed her to use their satellite phone. From this
channel she was able to establish contact with Suresh.

Accounting for staff right after the event was very difficult,
as there was not a fixed gathering point and most of the
cell phones were lost and/or the carriers had no service.
Those who left immediately, went to inquire about their
family members. Some staff, mostly the able seniors,
Claude Jean (BRC), standing with Ingrid Deslandes were on-site the following day, and within 14 days, staff
(Branch Manager) and Ridana Cornet (Citservice members started coming by themselves to the Delmas
Head)at the Citi’s temporary location, Scotia Branch. site. By word of mouth, HR was able to begin to account
for the employees that made it out.

A team from Citi Security & Investigative Services and Citi Realty Services arrived in Port-au-Prince on
th
Thursday, January 14 , via private choppers, and provided medical equipment, supplies, and satellite
telephones to assisst Citi staff. The team made their way to our collapsed location and participated in the
rescue efforts. By the 14th, our worst fears were confirmed: 5 of our colleagues perished as a
consequence of the earthquake.

We have to mention the remarkable solidarity from our neighboring Citibankers from Puerto Rico and
Dominican Republic. Their CCOs and respective teams, Raymond Gatcliffe and Maximo Vidal, took this
crisis as their own and went above and beyond to make their resources available to Haiti while prioritizing
the needs of our Haitian colleagues.

In parallel, Citi‘s Continuity of Business and Crisis Management Teams worked tirelessly to ensure the
safety of our colleagues in Haiti and began to recover critical business processes.

While the humanitarian assistance was prioritized, there was a need to resume local business and
financial services. After several meetings between The Haitian Central Bank and the local banks, it was
agreed that all banks were to open for business on the same date. The financial sector reopened to the
public on January 23rd, 2010, 11 days after the disaster.

Next came the question of where Citi was going to operate in Haiti. Petion-Ville was less affected than
Port-au-Prince, the capital. The business, along with the region, decided to look for a temporary place in
this area. At the time, the stability of the COB site (located in Petion-Ville) could not be assessed. Two
banks approached the acting CCO (Margareth Graham) and proposed Citi use some space in their
Petion-Ville location. After CSIS examined both structures, the decision was made to temporarily move to
Scotia Bank. On the 23rd of January, Citi resumed operations, along with the other banks, from a teller
space with 1 employee and a small conference room barely accommodating 8 people. With the
commitment of the Haitian staff and the support of the regional teams, CB Haiti was able to return to BAU
and continued servicing our customers.

On January 25th, Citi‘s CEO, Vikram Pandit traveled to Haiti accompanied by Don Callahan, Joe Petro,
and John Odermatt, and met with our colleagues and the families of those who passed away.

CB Haiti has had presence in Haiti since 1971 and is committed to continue serving the community,
customers, and employees by providing our many banking services and investment products.

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

Education Options for Business Continuity Professionals


by John Orlando, Norwich University

Why a Business Continuity Degree?


Higher education has finally taken notice of business continuity. Until recently, the only education options
for continuity professionals have been certification courses and conferences. Certifications and
conferences have their value. Conferences are a good way to get updates on the profession, and
certification courses teach the generally accepted principles of business continuity. But both also have a
relatively narrow focus.

A degree can provide a well rounded education in the field. The curriculum is designed to take the
student on a journey through the important topics of a profession. More importantly, degree programs
provide a much deeper understanding than is possible through other forms of education. In a good
degree program--especially a master‘s program--you will not only learn current orthodoxy, but also
question it. You will explore how, and whether, common principles apply in practice through sustained
discussion of the topics with fellow students and instructors. The new insights will not only help you do
your job better, but also prepare you to become a leader in the profession through presentations and
articles.

A degree can also help legitimize your talents to others within the organization and provide a career track
to more senior positions. Finally, the research and writing in a degree program will improve the all
important soft skills--such as communication--that employers look for today.

What to Look for in a Higher Education Program


Curriculum
The first question to ask yourself is: What kind of curriculum do I what? There are basically two options--
a program focused on business continuity, or a program focused on a related topic with a specialization in
business continuity. Norwich University offers a Master of Science in Business Continuity Management
focused on business continuity. By contrast, Boston University offers an MBA core of traditional business
topics--such as marketing, accounting, etc.--with a specialization in business continuity. Other schools,
such as the New Jersey Institute of Technology, offer programs that focus on emergency management or
homeland security with a specialization in business continuity. The choice comes down to a tradeoff
between depth in business continuity and breadth in other fields. The choice is up to you on your career
interests and prior educational background.

Regional Accreditation
Accreditation is a kind of stamp of approval signifying that a program meets certain standards of quality.
Make sure that any school you choose has regional accreditation. Regional accreditation is the original
form of accreditation. Some schools that are not able to attain regional accreditation have banded
together to form their own accreditation societies and basically self-accredit. It is important to go to a
regionally accredited institution because some employers may discount a degree that lacks regional
accreditation. More importantly, a regionally accredited institution is not allowed to accept transcript
credits from a non-regionally accredited institution. You not be able to apply your coursework to a
regionally accredited program should you decide to transfer, and a regionally accredited institution is not
be allowed to accept your application to a master‘s degree if your bachelor‘s degree is from a non-
regionally accredited institution.

Delivery: Online vs. Face-to-face


Online education has allowed millions of working adults to go back to school. The convenience of the
online format is ideal for working adults who now make up the majority of online students. Some wonder
about the quality of an online education. Rest assured that literally hundreds of studies have proven that
the quality of online education is equal to face-to-face education. While a small number of people can‘t

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

seem to take to the online format, and unfortunately it is hard to know if you are one of these people until
you have some experience with it, some people actually do better in an online environment. Discussion
in an online course is done via postings to discussion boards. With no time limit to craft your comments,
online discussion provides greater thought-time to delve into topics with your fellow students.

Faculty
The instructor is probably the most important factor to determining the quality of an education. You
should take a close look at a program‘s instructors, and be leery of any program that does not provide
faculty profiles. Many programs primarily use instructors with backgrounds other than in business
continuity. You should also make sure that the faculty have some real world experience to draw upon to
connect theory with practice. Also ask how the school teaches. Look for small classes of 20 or fewer
students, and for programs designed to encourage and even require discussion between students.

Graduation Rates
Finally, an institution should be willing to provide information on its graduation rates. This has become an
important topic in higher education recently, as some institutions have been found to have abysmal
graduation rates—even as low as 14%. At an institution such as this, there is only a one in seven chance
that you will complete the program you started, and if you don‘t complete it you wll lose the time and
money that you invest. While no institution can have a 100 % graduation rate because students leave on
their own due to a variety of reasons, certainly a graduation rate of at least 50% is in order.

You have what it takes


Many adults are nervous about returning to school after a ten, twenty, or thirty year absence, thinking that
they must have lost whatever it takes to be a student. But experience has proven that organization and
dedication are the two most important traits to success in a degree program, and these are areas where
most working adults shine. Your education will take time and effort, but in the end it will both be
personally rewarding and can accelerate your career.

Article provided by John Orlando,Program Director for the Norwich University Master of
Science in Business Continuity Management program at: http://businesscontinuity.norwich.edu

BCI Business Continuity Awareness Week 2010 is a Global


Success
by Alex Arvaniditis, Business Continuity Institute

Business Continuity Institute‘s (BCI) Business Continuity Awareness Week (BCAW) 2010, the global free
educational event in the BCM industry calendar facilitated by the Business Continuity Institute (BCI), took
nd th
place from March 22 – 26 . The purpose of the Week was to provide business leaders with an
unparalleled opportunity to learn about Business Continuity Management (BCM) and how it can help their
organization.

BCAW 2010 focused on providing virtual events and digital resources, with Monday‘s kick-off taking the
form of a global video conference, bringing together (BCM) experts from nine countries – Australia,
Canada, Denmark, India, Norway, Singapore, Switzerland UK and USA - and featuring case studies from
Statoil and Lockheed Martin. In addition, there were 23 webcasts delivered throughout the week,
including contributions from eBay, Gartner, Norwich University and BT, among others.

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

Wednesday saw the gathering of key BCM and insurance industry experts
in London, to discuss the nature and magnitude of the link between good
BCM programs and terms offered for business interruption (BI) insurance: a
key issue for Chief Financial Officers (CFOs) and risk managers. A full
report will be published later in April.

A number of reports were published during the week, including ―The


Business Case for BCM‖ which reported the results of a survey of 221 worldwide organizations, offering
significant evidence that BCM improves day-to-day resilience and provides quantifiable gains to
businesses when faced by disruption. In addition, a collection of nine case studies was submitted by BCI
members from the UK, Switzerland, Japan, Pakistan and Saudi-Arabia, articulating members experiences
with BCM and showing its value. Also published was a paper on the future of risk management, ―Risk
Management is Dead..., Long Live Risk Management‖, explaining how the management of risk as set out
in corporate governance guidelines can benefit from BCM practices given the short comings exposed in
the light of the current economic crisis.

Following BCAW 2010, Lyndon Bird, International & Technical Director at the BCI commented – ―BCAW
2010 was once again hugely successful with thousands of people visiting the website, taking part in the
webinars, and downloading the guides and reports. BCM is a management methodology that delivers
tangible value to organizations: it can be applied across the whole enterprise; across different industries
and sectors; and, above all, BCM is being adopted on a worldwide basis.‖

Links

BCAW 2010 Website – www.businesscontinuityawarenessweek.org


“One step ahead – the BCM advantage”: a global video conference (90mins) –
http://www.visualwebcaster.com/event.asp?id=65758&pw=BCI
“The Business Case for BCM” – http://www.thebci.org/case/businesscaseforbcm.pdf
Nine Case Studies – http://www.bcipartnership.com/BCIBusinessCaseforBCMMarch2010CASESTUDIES.pdf
“Risk Management is Dead..., Long Live Risk Management” –
http://www.bcipartnership.com/BCICorporateGovernanceDiscussionPaperFINAL.pdf

About Business Continuity Management

Business Continuity Management (BCM) identifies potential threats to an organization and the impacts to business operations that
those threats, if realized, might cause. It provides a framework for building organizational resilience with the capability for an
effective response that safeguards the interests of key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value-creating activities.

About the Business Continuity Institute


Based in Caversham, United Kingdom, the Business Continuity Institute (BCI) was founded in 1994 and leads on the development
of best practice in Business Continuity Management. The BCI also contributes to relevant legislation and standards. It has over
5,000 members in 90 countries active in an estimated 2,500 organizations in private, public and third sectors. For more go to
www.thebci.org The BCI Partnership, established in 2007, is the corporate body within the BCI with over 70 member organizations.
For more go to www.bcipartnership.com

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

Annual Testing Requirements Workshop – CTI EMEA


by Nicola Lawrence

The EMEA Business Continuity team was audited towards the end of 2009. Based
on the Workpaper Comments raised, the Business Continuity Services (BCS) team
resolved to set about implementing various enhancements and improvements to
the business continuity testing program. The Denial of Access (DOA) test script
was enhanced with detailed guidance, and extra information was added to assist
the Business Recovery Coordinators (BRCs) when preparing and executing their
DOA tests. The overall objective is to achieve synergy in all tests performed in the
EMEA region, thus improving the quality of the testing and to tighten the controls
surrounding the tests.

The BRCs were advised of all the changes and updates via email and SharePoint. However to ensure
that the testing is done in a consistent and standard manner, the EMEA BCS team has created a
Workshop that aims to familiarize the CTI EMEA BRCs with the annual testing requirements and guide
them through the documentation process and evidence capture methods.

Two workshops were scheduled for March and uploaded to the Global Learning Management System
(GLMS), thus ensuring that the BRCs would get recognition for attending the course. The workshops,
which were hosted via Live meeting, offered a virtual classroom to the BRCs. This proved a useful and
successful format for the sessions, which were well attended and involved lively interaction.

The EMEA BCS team has been approached by the global team to present our workshop to the wider CTI
community. Further workshops will be presented over the next few months for EMEA BRCs.

CTI NA Training Update


by Roland Salluce

CTI North America Business Continuity Services started 2010 with training options for their staff and
Business Recovery Coordinators (BRCs). In conjunction with the test kick-off at each Disaster Recovery
Data Center site, CTI NA Business Continuity Services provides a Data Center Testing awareness class.
The goal of this class is to give a high-level overview of the processes and procedures involved with Data
Center Testing. Topics covered include Grand Central Survey, Waivers, Test Preparation, Recovery Time
Objectives (RTOs), Issue Management Reports and more. In addition to being offered to CTI staff, the
class is also open to anyone at Citi who is interested in understanding what is involved with Data Center
Testing.

CTI NA Business Continuity Services also hosted a Business Impact Analysis (BIA) refresher for BRCs
within CTI, as well as for staff from CATE and GTO. The class covered the BIA module within CoB Trac
and explained the importance of a BIA. The session was interactive and walked through the steps
needed to complete the yearly update to the BIA. CTI NA Business Continuity Services will hold similar
sessions for other CoB Trac modules - Business Recovery Plans (BRP), Crisis Management Plans (CMP)
and Testing.

If you have any questions please contact *CTI BCS NA Business Unit Planning.

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

External Speaking Activities


Greg Gist

March 24, 2010 - Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association (SIFMA)
Presentation to the SIFMA Planning Committee about ―living wills‖ and how to raise awareness on this
topic and encourage the Business Continuity Professionals in other firms promote the need to comply
with this G-20 directive in the near future.

Quality Review Unit


Ashley Beecy
st
The Office of Business Continuity (OBC) Quality Review Unit met on March 31 to discuss a number of
Lessons Learned from the first quarter.

The OBC Quality Review Unit facilitates a process to ensure that business continuity plans are reviewed
for plan quality and executability. The Quality Review Unit identifies lessons learned to enhance
processes, training and CoB Trac controls. The unit also produces metrics reports to summarize quality
review results.

Topics discussed in this quarter‘s meeting include adding an Alternative Work Strategy in the Primary
Location tab of the Business Impact Analysis (BIA), incorporating recovery documents, including CoB
plans, in the Offsite Storage section, and more.

Updated Pandemic Operational Plan Course Now Available


In this pandemic planning course, participants are provided with an overview of Citi‘s updated Pandemic
Operating Plan 2.0, as well as step-by-step instructions on how to update the Pandemic Country
Template. The course concludes with guidelines for expanding the Business Recovery Plan to include a
strategic response for a Pandemic event.

To access the course in the GLMS, search CoB Pandemic Operational Planning or Course Code
COBGOPANDMC.

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

Creating an Effective Tabletop Course Now Available


This course, which fulfills the training requirement for 2010, presents the necessary components and
actions needed by a Crisis Management / Continuity of Business officer to plan, prepare for, execute, and
report on an effective tabletop event.

To access the course in the GLMS, search Creating An Effective Tabletop Exercise or Course Code
COBGOTTXW10.

BIA Guide to Update and Maintenance in CoB Trac Course Now Available
The first in a series of cross-sector guidence materials, the BIA Guide to Update and Maintenance in CoB
Trac course provides a step-by-step look at the BIA submission process as well as an explanation of the
content required and dependencies to consider when completing or updating a BIA in CoB Trac.

To access the course in the GLMS, search BIA Guide to Update and Maintenance in CoB Trac or
Course Code COBGOBIAC10.

Cross Sector Guidance on Business Recovery Plans in CoB Trac


The Business Recovery Planning Quick Reference and Quality Plan Check list for BRCS was developed
in partnership with all Sector Governance teams and provides prescriptive information to assist BRCs in
updating and maintaining quality Business Recovery Plans in CoB Trac.

BRP in CoB Trac Quick Reference Guide: Provides prescriptive information to assist BRCs in the
maintenance and updating of quality BRPs in CoB Trac.

BRP Quality Plan Check List: Sets out quality standards for data content and executability in an easy-to-
use check list for quality BRPs in CoB Trac.

Whenever possible, the standard and agreed upon methodology should be used across all Sectors and
Regions. In the event that a specific procedure for a Sector is identified, each business should follow the
guidance outlined by their Sector guides. Deviation from Sector guidance must be pre-approved by your
Sector CoB Head Prior to implementation.

If you have completed the BRP, please take this opportunity to ensure your plan meets the quality
standard for data content and executability by referring to the Quality Plan Check List.

What to Look for in the Coming Months…


♦ Spanish version of the Pandemic Operating Procedure course
♦ Re-release of the CoB Trac Testing module
♦ Updated New Hire Orientation Pamphlet

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Office of Business Continuity News Journal
Issue # 18, May 2010

Articles Submitted By
Alex Arvanitidis, Business Continuity Institute (BCI) alex.arvanitidis@thebci.org
Ashley Beecy, Office of Business Continuity ashley.n.beecy@citi.com
Greg Gist, Office of Business Continuity gistg@citi.com
Yanira Gonzalez, Regional CoB Team and Claude Jean, BRC yanira.gonzalez@citi.com; claude.jean@citi.com
Nicola Lawrence, CTI EMEA nicola.lawrence@citi.com
Kate McGovern, Awareness & Training kathleen.m.mcgovern@citi.com
John Orlando, Norwich University jorlando@norwich.edu
Roland Salluce, CTI North America roland.g.salluce@citi.com

News Journal Editors


Kate McGovern, Awareness & Training
Stephanie Jackson, Awareness & Training

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