Marsh Warns London Firms ‘Under-prepared’ for Terrorist Attack

Despite the past deadly attacks and the continuing threat of renewed violence, “London firms appear under-prepared for a terrorist attack,” concludes Marsh from the results of an ad hoc poll.

Marsh conducted a survey at recent seminar on terrorism, which revealed that “over one third of delegates from mid-sized and large firms in the Greater London area stated that they did not have emergency response, crisis management and business recovery plans integrated within their business continuity management (BCM) framework or risk management strategy.”

Antony Ketteridge, a Business Risk Consultant at Marsh, commented: “We urge all London businesses to review their BCM plans and processes to ensure they are equipped to respond to a terrorist incident. While there is little businesses can do to prevent a terrorist attack, much can be done to mitigate its impact by forming robust BCM plans, running exercises to rehearse their effectiveness, and managing the risk in their supply chain, or understanding the insurance implications.”

Marsh also took the opportunity to remind clients and potential clients that it has won the “Excellence in Business Continuity in the Insurance Industry award at the Business Continuity Awards on the last four occasions and “its consultants have supported the development of BS 25999. It has a range of BCM services covering all aspects of BCM, including plan development and exercising, to help businesses with this critical issue and has advised more than 2000 organizations across Europe.”

Source: Marsh – www.mmc.com or www.marsh.com