While federal homeland security officials raised the threat level to “orange” this week for the financial services sectors in New York City, northern New Jersey and Washington, D-C, banking officials in Iowa see no threat in the heartland. John Sorenson, president and C-E-O of the Iowa Bankers Association, says Iowa’s institutions are ready to deal with any potential disaster. Sorenson says Iowa’s seen many natural disasters, including the floods of ’93, along with all of the preparation for Y-2-K and even after the September 11th attacks, he says “our banks are very well prepared.” In addition to a host of security measures to prevent all sorts of attacks, he says Iowa’s banks also have disaster recovery plans in place. Sorenson says those plans are tested very closely as are alternate procedures should something happen. Many banks have off-site locations, computer backups and I-T systems that have been thoroughly checked over by regulators for compliance. Sorenson says he’s confident Iowans have no need to worry about the integrity and security of our state’s institutions. Sorenson says “We’re facing new types of threats obviously and we want to make sure that not only are the physical assets of our institutions safe but also the ability to communicate with our customers on a timely basis is there and that we’re making sure people are comfortable with the safety and soundness of their financial institution.”
