This lesson examines the processes and strategies for ensuring that treasury operations can withstand and recover from disruptions .

6.1 The Need for Business Continuity in Treasury

Treasury operations are mission-critical. A disruption to payment processing, cash management, or risk management systems can have severe consequences for the organisation. Treasuries must ensure that critical functions can continue—and be restored quickly—in the event of an incident .

6.2 Key Elements of a Business Continuity Plan

A comprehensive treasury business continuity plan typically includes:

• Risk Assessment: Identifying potential threats to treasury operations, such as IT outages, cyberattacks, natural disasters, or key staff unavailability.

• Business Impact Analysis: Identifying critical functions and recovery priorities.

• Recovery Strategies: Defining how to restore critical functions, such as using alternative systems, manual workarounds, or fallback arrangements with banks.

• Testing and Exercising: Regularly testing and updating the plan to ensure it remains effective and that staff know their roles.

6.3 Bank Connectivity and Balance Reporting

A key component of BCP is “Develop, maintain, and test business continuity plans (including bank balance reporting process, funds transfer capabilities)” . This includes ensuring that multiple bank connectivity options exist and that staff can execute payments and access balance information even if one system fails.

6.4 Operational Risk Management

Operational resilience is closely linked to operational risk management. Treasury must identify and mitigate risks related to fraud, human error, system failures, and external events, maintaining strong segregation of duties and robust audit trails .