The RTGS system is the heart of the country economy and, as such, in case of a severe disaster, it should be taken back to operation as soon as possible. Nowadays there’s a consolidated certainty that a severe malfunction of financial systems can lead to dramatic consequences in the economy of a country. In case of major disaster (application failure due to a malicious attack, network failure on both primary and disaster recovery links, natural or accidental disaster, terroristic attack), the rapidity of restarting the financial system is crucial to limit the country economy downfall and restart the core business operations.

All Central Banks have at least two sites (primary and disaster recovery site) with a nearly real-time recovery architecture and some have a 3rd cold site in case of severe disaster. More and more Central Banks are taking into consideration the cost/ benefit opportunity to have a 3rd disaster recovery site to be used in extreme contingency situation.