Montréal Exchange passes crisis recovery tests

The test showed that the Exchange’s staff would be able to open and operate the Montréal Exchange as usual in less than 24 hours after a crisis that restricted physical access to the building.

Higher standards to better serve investors

On average, the Montréal Exchange transacts over $30 billion in notional amounts on a daily basis, and its clearinghouse manages, on an ongoing basis, more than $300 billion in positions held by Canadian and foreign investors in its market.

Given the scope of its activities in Canada’s financial markets, and given the consequences that a prolonged hiatus in trading activities would have on investors, the Montréal Exchange began, shortly after becoming an electronic exchange, to develop an infrastructure that would allow it to operate from a remote location. Now that it has implemented a proven recovery plan, the Montréal Exchange has set new operating standards for markets and has generated considerable added value for its participants.

Key elements of the crisis-recovery test:

As part of the crisis-recovery test, the Montréal Exchange tested the following elements:

• The processes designed to trigger the recovery plan.
  Moving operations to the recovery centre located outside of the Montréal Exchange’s offices.
• The chain of communication linking the Exchange’s personnel, clients, and the public.
• Recovery of the Exchange’s entire computer and telecommunications infrastructure, including the data and applications needed to reopen and operate the market.
• The remote operating capability of applications used for trading, market surveillance, reporting market data as well as interface applications related to transaction compensation.
• The sound performance of a simulated trading session with some participants.