Bank of England Carried Out Pandemic Flu Exercise in 2006, “With Eerie Prescience”
May 4th, 2009Via: Independent:
With eerie prescience, the City tracked a pandemic using a ‘bird flu’ scenario in 2006 – leaving it better prepared for the effects of the swine flu outbreak.
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UK financial regulators have rehearsed how a pandemic like the swine flu, now spreading from Mexico, will affect Britain. In the most detailed disaster planning exercise held anywhere in the world, more than 70 City firms, including HSBC and Norwich Union, secretly tested how the crisis would unfold over five months.
The exercise, which began in November 2006, was masterminded by the Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and the Treasury – the three authorities that monitor financial stability. It was condensed into six weeks, with firms sent updates as the crisis developed.
