Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Capability

Business Challenge

Following the global regulatory changes introduced after 9/11, the South African Reserve Bank required all major financial institutions to demonstrate that critical banking systems could be recovered within 90 minutes following a significant operational disruption. For the Investment Banking division, this required the creation of a robust Disaster Recovery capability capable of protecting critical trading, settlement and financial operations under stringent regulatory scrutiny.

Archer Approach

Played a key role in the bank's Disaster Recovery compliance programme by establishing a comprehensive inventory of every application supporting the Investment Banking division, assessing business criticality and defining recovery priorities aligned with regulatory requirements.

Worked closely with technology teams, business stakeholders and external partners to establish the secondary Disaster Recovery site, ensuring infrastructure, workstations, telephony and replicated systems were fully operational and capable of supporting rapid business recovery.

Coordinated recurring Disaster Recovery exercises, refining recovery procedures through structured testing, governance and collaboration until the organisation consistently achieved the mandated recovery objectives.

Organisational Impact
Enabled the Investment Banking division to achieve full compliance with South African Reserve Bank Disaster Recovery requirements.

Established a structured application recovery framework based on business criticality and operational risk.

Strengthened organisational resilience through the successful implementation of a fully operational secondary Disaster Recovery facility.

Improved collaboration between business, infrastructure and regulatory stakeholders during Disaster Recovery planning and testing.

Supported the achievement of consistent 90-minute recovery capability across critical banking systems.

Capability Legacy

The programme established the operational disciplines, governance practices and recovery capability that enabled the organisation to demonstrate ongoing regulatory compliance through independently audited Disaster Recovery exercises. More importantly, it embedded resilience as a core organisational capability, ensuring the bank could continue critical operations during major disruption while maintaining regulatory confidence.

Capability Strengthened

Business Continuity & Regulatory Resilience