Pensions and Retirement Training Course on Business Continuity in Pension Operations

Module 1: Introduction to Business Continuity in Pension Operations
Understanding business continuity and operational resilience concepts
Importance of continuity planning in pension fund operations
Common operational threats: cyber risks, IT failures, pandemics, and fraud
Relationship between business continuity, risk management, and governance
Case study: Pension fund resilience during a national crisis

Module 2: Risk Assessment and Business Impact Analysis (BIA)
Identifying critical pension administration processes
Mapping interdependencies across payroll, IT, and fund management functions
Conducting a business impact analysis: metrics, thresholds, and recovery priorities
Determining Recovery Time Objectives (RTO) and Recovery Point Objectives (RPO)
Workshop: Performing a BIA for pension contribution and benefit payment operations

Module 3: Developing Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plans
Components of an effective BCP for pension institutions
Designing incident response procedures and recovery strategies
Integrating disaster recovery (DR) into pension IT and data systems
Creating backup and data restoration frameworks
Practical exercise: Drafting a pension-specific business continuity plan

Module 4: Implementation, Testing, and Maintenance of BCPs
Training staff and defining roles during continuity events
Testing business continuity and DR plans through simulations and drills
Monitoring and reviewing performance of recovery processes
Continuous improvement through audits, lessons learned, and plan updates
Case study: Lessons from a pension system outage and response actions

Module 5: Governance, Compliance, and Communication in Continuity Management
Regulatory expectations for operational resilience in pension schemes
Reporting disruptions and recovery outcomes to trustees and regulators
Crisis communication and stakeholder management during disruptions
Embedding continuity planning into organizational culture
Capstone workshop: Building a governance and communication framework for BCP execution