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#153609 - 01/26/04 07:39 PM emergency closing
Pale Rider Offline
10K Club
Pale Rider
Joined: Aug 2002
Posts: 34,318
under the Lone Star
Our contingency planning document indicates we will notify the public of our nearest branch in the case of one closing for a disaster or emergency greater than 72 hours. Does anyone have a comfort range of how far we can send customers ? We have a few instances where our West Texas branches may be as far as 25 miles apart. Would it be better to contract for a temporary facility if the nearest branch is more than a certain distance ?
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General Discussion
#153610 - 01/27/04 02:17 PM Re: emergency closing
Kansayaku Offline
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Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 1,454
metsuretsu
It can be hard to determine what is best. Consider the situation of your customers. Are a good portion elderly or perhaps without the benefit of transportation and therefore possibly unable to travel a longer distance to obtain the services that you provide to them? If that is the case, as it can be with community banks, you might wish to consider a temporary facility to better serve your customer base.

You also might wish to consider the type of emergencies that can arise calling for the closing of the bank. If it is a natural disaster that destroys a large portion of the community, (such as the tornado that hit Moore, OK a few years ago) it could be very important to bring a temporary facility to the community. In a case like that, if you don't make the effort, you might lose customers to the other bank in town that does. People remember the extra effort and kindness shown them during the low points of their lives.

Whatever your institution chooses in this instance, best of luck and may no disaster ever touch you that would cause your plan to need come into effect.
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#153611 - 01/28/04 08:00 PM Re: emergency closing
Michelle D Offline
Gold Star
Michelle D
Joined: Oct 2001
Posts: 313
Terminator Country
The type of diaster really plays into this. We have offices in So Cal that had to be closed due to the wildfires in November. We were not going to endanger the safety of our employees to keep a branch office open once the evacuation order was issued. In this case, the evacuation order covered many communities and forced people to disperse in a wide area. We referred customers to our nearest branch because setting up a temporary facility was not feasible, but we also contacted ATM networks and arranged for our customers to use those ATMs free of charge.

I guess what I'm saying is that your DR plan should have several options - one may be referring to a branch over 25 miles away (that's what we had to do), but in other cases you may be able to open up a temporary (trailer) branch. It really depends on the diaster!
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