In June 2012, the watchdog prescribed a framework for a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Site (DRS) for stock exchanges and depositories.
Regulator Sebi on Tuesday issued guidelines for business continuity plans and maintaining disaster recovery sites for market infrastructure institutions, including clearing corporations.
In June 2012, the watchdog prescribed a framework for a Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery Site (DRS) for stock exchanges and depositories.
“With the advancement in technology and improved automation of processes in terms of transitioning time, wherein the operations can be moved from the Primary Data Centre (PDC) to the DRS, it was felt that the extant framework needs to be re-examined,” Sebi said in a circular.
The framework has been revised and is also applicable to clearing corporations.
“The stock exchanges, clearing corporations, and depositories (collectively referred to as Market Infrastructure Institutions) should have in place BCP and DRS to maintain data and transaction integrity,” the circular said.
Stock exchanges and clearing corporations are required to have a Near Site in addition to DRS to ensure zero data loss.
The depositories should have to adopt a suitable mechanism.
According to Sebi, the DRS should preferably be set up in different seismic zones and placed a minimum distance of 500 kilometers from it so that both systems are not affected by the same disaster.
Additionally, the institutions must have a Recovery Time Objective (RTO) and Recovery Point Objective (RPO) of not more than 4 hours and 30 minutes, respectively.
Also, updates made at the PDC should be reflected immediately at the DRS/ Near Site.
The circular said disaster recovery drills should be conducted quarterly and include running all operations from DRS for at least one full trading day without any operational support from the staff based at PDC.
Live trading sessions from DRS should be scheduled on normal working days for at least two consecutive days every six months.
“The results and observations of these drills should be documented and placed before the governing board of stock exchanges/ clearing corporations/ depositories.
“Subsequently, the same, along with the comments of the governing board, should be forwarded to Sebi within a month of the disaster recovery drill,” Sebi said.
The regulator has asked the institutions to define ‘disaster’ depending on their line of business. “Stock exchanges, clearing corporations, and depositories are advised to submit their revised BCP–DR (Disaster Recovery) policy to Sebi within 3 months,” the circular said.
