New BSI standard under fire

LONDON – A business continuity standard developed by the British Standards Institute (BSI) is coming under heavy fire from the financial services industry. Publicly Available Specification 56 (PAS 56) was developed more than a year ago by the BSI as a potential description of ‘best practices’ in business continuity for a wide range of industries. But executives from banks, and even financial services regulators, are calling the standard overly detailed and prescriptive.

"It’s a huge tome," said one financial services executive at a business continuity conference in London in late September. Bill Creer, director of group security at British insurance firm Aviva, says: "I like the framework aspect, but I don’t like to be told how to do business. I don’t like to be told how to do risk analysis." John Trundle, head of the business continuity division of the Bank of England, noted that there are "strange parts in it that are very prescriptive", and that toning down