Crisis? What crisis?
Mike Austin
European collaboration
companies,' says Padula. These
companies have been independent
until nowand becoming part of a global
entity is new for them.' The Global
Administration team airms to solve issues
sensitively and still complete the job of
refocusing businesses when necessary.
Country Banking in the Americas is an
example of the regional solutions Global
Administration is developing. 'We need
to create a one-stop shop for farmers. For this we are developing
a new front end to face customers. This is a solution we
developed to serve the specific needs of our region.'
For the administration of Rl, London is the centre of the
European region and it is run under the management of
CAO Mike Austin. But Utrecht is the head office for both the
wholesale and the retail bank, giving it a special status. The
geographical proximity of the two locations leads to close
cooperation between them. 'Consider Utrecht's and London's
Europe: Various bombings and threats in Europe including the recent bombings in the London Underground. Systems can be switched
either to disaster recovery sites or to Utrecht so that all systems run as normal.
Asia: Earthquakes, bombings (Indonesia), SARS, tsunami (Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Sri Lanka), monsoon (India). Systems are
switched to disaster recovery sites standing by. Unusually, during the SARS crisis the Singapore office kept a skeleton crew at the
disaster recovery site in case of an outbreak which could have necessitated quarantine.This group had to be totally isolated which
included one staff member with a girlfriend working in the same building.
The Americas: Attacks on New York's financial district on 11 September 2001 (9/11and, more recently, black-outs in New York. Systems
were back up just hours after 9/11When the more recent electricity black-outs occurred, systems were switched between disaster
recovery sites in different parts of the New Yorkarea, providing generator power to keep everything going. In addition, brush fires
affected Rabobank NA (former VIB) in California in 2003. As a result of well thought out and rehearsed back-up plans, customers were
not seriously impacted by these events, if at all.
Australia - New Zealand: This region is the lucky exception so far with only one close call that occurred when bush fires came close to
Lane Cove, a Sydney suburb, where the disaster recovery site is located.
