Friday, July 08, 2005

Secret chatroom keeps London markets open

A Reuters newswire article, via MSNBC, reports that:

A secret Internet chatroom run by Britain’s financial regulators helped keep London’s financial markets open after Thursday’s bomb blasts, while financial firms activated security measures in case of further attacks.

The Bank of England, the Treasury and the Financial Services Authority switched on a secure section of their Financial Sector Continuity Web site to talk to major banks operating in the City of London’s financial hub about how they were coping.

"In the light of yesterday’s events the tripartite authorities (Treasury, Bank of England and FSA) have activated the contingency part of the Web site,” they said on Friday.The site, set up in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, allows regulators to coordinate and communicate with the financial services sector if there is a devastating event such as Thursday’s bombings on a London bus and underground trains that killed more than 50 people and injured hundreds.

The Web site has a secure section where the authorities can communicate directly with big banks that are key to the stability of the international financial system.

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