Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and Business Continuity Plan (BCP) for Financial Cooperatives in New Market Economy

Abstract

A large banking institutions based in India initiated an IT solution that provide link to data redundancy towards large customer base. As per Reserve Bank of India Department of Banking Supervision, Central Office, Mumbai has guidelines on information security, Electronic Banking, Technology risk management, Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and Business Continuity Plan (BCP). The banks must have prevention programme to reduce the likelihood that banks operation will be significantly affected by a pandemic event for which the banks need to setup disaster avoidance, disaster recovery committee at branch level. The main objective of this research paper is to observe whether the particular cooperative Bank has any effective Disaster Management System with reference to Disaster Avoidance, Disaster Recovery Plan (DRP) and Business Continuity Plan (BCP) as per RBI guidelines and other international standards. This was pursued by conducting structured interview of branch head of the The Vishweshwar Sahakari Bank Ltd., Pune, Maharashtra, India. The researcher with the help of a questionnaire inquired from the branch head of The Vishweshwar Sahakari Bank Ltd., Pune and compared the responses with the desired state using GAP Analysis Worksheet. The study reflected that the selected Bank in this research, backup its data at a Remote offsite location, have a BCP/DRP Plan available with them on software but they do not apply Disaster Management System as per RBI - “Guidelines on information security, Electronic Banking, Technology risk management and cyber frauds” and other international standards. The study concludes by providing recommendations to the Indian Banks.