PHILIPPINE INSURERS “LAGGARDS” IN DISASTER RECOVERY

Philippine financial institutions have been rated poorly for disaster readiness in a recent study by research from Financial Insights, part of International Data Corp. “The research revealed that, in contrast with the benchmarks outlined for international best practices to achieve recovery and resumption of core activities within at least four hours following a disaster, downtime for the Philippine financial service institutions was relatively higher”. Cyrus Daruwala, managing director of Financial Insights research department Asia-Pacific, said that seven insurers took part in the local survey, of which three said that it would take them more than 24 hours to recover their core systems. Mr Daruwala said that, although there were government guidelines, “there is no push. There should be some sort of straitjacket to force local firms to comply”. The survey was commissioned by storage vendor EMC. Insurer participants included Ayala Life, Berkley International Life, Cocolife, Grepa Life and Malayan Insurance Co.