Paulson weighs disaster plan
Concerns about Wall Street's ability to withstand a terrorist attack, natural disaster or flu pandemic have prompted Hank Paulson, the new US Treasury secretary, to launch a review of disaster planning for the financial markets.
In one of his first acts in the post, the former Goldman Sachs chief executive has asked the president's working group on financial markets to assess the improvements made since September 11, 2001. His move comes amid continued Wall Streetconcerns - five years after the World Trade Center attacks - about the resilience of power and telecommunications services.
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September 11 exposed weaknesses in the industry's disaster planning and closed the equity market for four days.
Experts say financial services companies in New York and London have improved the resilience of their operations. But some senior Wall Street figures are concerned that the utilities, on which the financial markets are highly dependent, have made less progress. There is also greater focus on the impact of a flu pandemic on the financial system.
Scott Parsons, US deputy assistant treasury secretary, said the utilities had made "tremendous improvements" but added: "We remain concerned about how to provide better resilience in telecommunications, which is the financial sector's single biggest dependency."
Many financial services companies in London have invested in back-up facilities since 2001. In a study in December, the Financial Services Authority said most companies now had "highly resilient" IT systems and could continue normal operations within a day of a disaster. But in a survey earlier this year, some companies told the FSA they remained vulnerable because of their reliance on public utilities.
Wall Street firms blamed many of their problems in 2001 on the damage to one of Verizon Communications' five switching centres in lower Manhattan.
Some Wall Street disaster planners believe more pressure needs to be put on the utilities by their regulators. They are encouraged by the interest taken by Mr Paulson, who was closely involved in the issue at Goldman Sachs.
In recent months, many financial services companies and regulators have been focusing on their ability to continue operations in the event of a flu pandemic, when many staff would want to work from home.
Gregory Ferris, head of business continuity planning at Morgan Stanley, told a US congressional committee in June it was unclear whether New York networks could cope with a spike in internet demand in areas with a high concentration of securities industry workers.
One possibility Wall Street executives want to discuss with telecoms companies and regulators is whether non-essential internet traffic could be blocked in such a crisis.
Mr Parsons said the US authorities were taking a close look at whether a "work at home" strategy would be effective in a pandemic given the potential impact on the internet.
Mr Parsons, who is responsible for critical infrastructure protection, said more recent events, such as the New York power blackout in 2003, showed that lessons had been learned from the Trade Center attacks.
华尔街能承受下一次9.11吗?
人们担忧华尔街能否经受得起恐怖袭击、自然灾害或者流感爆发，促使美国新任财长汉克?鲍尔森(Hank Paulson)启动一项针对华尔街金融市场灾害规划的评估。
鲍尔森原任高盛(Goldman Sachs)首席执行官，他在出任财长后采取的首批行动之一，就是要求美国总统的金融市场工作组评估2001年9月11日以来所取得的进展。纽约世界贸易中心遭受恐怖袭击5年后，华尔街仍然担忧电力和电信服务的承受能力。
“9/11”恐怖袭击暴露了该行业灾害规划的各种弱点，股市因此闭市4天。
专家表示，纽约和伦敦金融服务公司的业务恢复能力已得到改善。但华尔街的一些资深人士担心，金融市场高度依赖的公用事业部门进展较小。此外，流感爆发将对金融市场产生的影响，也得到了人们更多的关注。
美国财政部助理副部长斯科特?帕森斯(Scott Parsons)表示，公用事业部门已取得了“巨大进步”，但他补充说：“我们仍然对如何提高电信系统承受能力感到担忧，它是金融业依赖程度最高的一个行业。”
自2001年以来，许多位于伦敦的金融服务公司对备用设施进行了投资。英国金融服务局(Financial Services Authority)在12月份的一份研究中表示，多数公司现在都拥有“高度强韧”的IT系统，在灾难发生后的一天内就能恢复正常运营。但在今年早些时候公布的一份调查中，某些公司向英国金融服务局表示，对公用事业部门的依赖，使它们仍易受到攻击。
2001年“9/11”事件中，美国电信运营商Verizon Communications位于曼哈顿下城的五个交换中心之一遭到破坏。华尔街公司将许多问题归咎于此。
一些华尔街灾难预防规划者认为，监管机构须对公用事业部门施加更多的压力。他们受到鲍尔森介入的鼓励，鲍尔森在高盛任职时就密切参与防灾规划。
