Karachi: The National Clearing Company of Pakistan Limited (NCCPL) has announced it will conduct a comprehensive Business Continuity and Crisis Management exercise spanning two days, from Thursday, September 19 to Friday, September 20, 2024. The exercise aims to test and enhance the resilience of critical financial systems against potential disruptions.

The drill will involve switching to an Alternate Processing Site (APS) to ensure that all services remain operational without requiring clients to make any changes to their current setups. This includes major financial systems such as the National Clearing and Settlement System, Capital Gains Tax System, and various trading and risk management platforms.

According to information available from the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX), the NCCPL's clients, including clearing members, settling banks, and authorized intermediaries, will be able to access essential services such as Margin Trading and Financing Systems, Murabahah Share Financing, Securities Lending, and Borrowing System, and the Risk Management System, among others, from the alternate site.

Additionally, centralized services like the Know Your Customer (KYC) system, CKO Biometric System, and the NCC BioVerify App will also be accessible without any disruptions. However, the switchover will render some services temporarily unavailable at specific times. Online Account Services and the UIN Information System, along with mobile applications such as the NCC BioVerify App and NCConnect, will experience downtime on Wednesday, September 18, from 20:00 to 23:00 hours during the BCP activation, and again on Friday, September 20, from 21:00 to 23:30 hours during the rollback phase.

This exercise is expected to not only ensure the continuous operation of NCCPL's services in unforeseen circumstances but also evaluate and improve upon the current systems' ability to handle crises effectively.