Investors Bank

With over $26 billion in assets, Investors serves a wide range of consumer, business, commercial real estate, nonprofit and local government customers.

Through its extensive branch network, Investors is able to offer a financial product line that is competitive with those of larger financial institutions. This strength is combined with a highly experienced, locally based management team and a clear focus on the needs of their customers, businesses and communities. 

Issues

With Investor’s significant growth in recent years, their existing Business Continuity Plan (BCP) was out of date and incomplete. New lines of business, departments and processes had been added. In addition, the Halloween blizzard of 2011 significantly affected the bank’s operations and showed that a better organized response to incidents was required.

Solution

Weidenhammer’s Consulting Group was engaged to review the existing plan and create a new one based on a complete risk assessment and impact analysis.

Keys

Driven by Business Impact Analysis 

Meetings were held with 34 departments to help them complete a Business Impact Analysis. Each department’s critical processes and staff were identified and the business impact of these processes was quantified. The critical processes were ranked across the enterprise so that planning and resources were applied to the most critical areas. Recovery Time Objectives (RTOs) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPOs) were quantified.

Facilitated Creation of Departmental Continuity Recovery Plans

Weidenhammer helped each department create a Continuity Recovery Plan highlighting their critical processes and the steps to keep those processes running during an incident. Team contact listings, vendor listings, and equipment requirements were documented.

Alternate Operating and Recovery Sites Identified

Alternate operating and recovery sites were identified, visited, and ranked according to their ability to support staff and operations during an incident. Gaps in critical processes, resources, equipment, and facilities across the enterprise were identified and tracked during remediation.

Plan Exercises Facilitated

An enterprise and its employees can’t be confident their plans will work unless the plans are exercised. Weidenhammer worked with individual departments and executive management to facilitate tabletop and full scale exercises. The departments used the lessons learned from these exercises to adjust and improve their recovery plans. Most importantly, it gave each department confidence that the plans would work during a crisis. 

BCP Awareness Program Implemented

To ensure the Business Continuity Plans remained up to date and relevant, Weidenhammer helped implement an awareness program. Annual awareness meetings are held with each department to remind them to review and update the information in their plans. Reminders are sent quarterly and immediately after major enterprise events such as mergers, conversions, office relocations, or the introduction of new products.

End Results

Investors Bank now has a comprehensive BCP Program which provides direction and confidence to the individual departments and to executive management during a crisis. The plan was used during Hurricane Sandy, which affected over 75% of Investors’ branches and required the relocation of major operating units. The individual department plans ensured that staff knew what actions to take first and whom to contact.