Implementation of comprehensive business continuity planning for critical banking operations during crises

Posted: Oct 28, 2025

• Prof. Matteo Weber
• Prof. Mia Rossi
• Prof. Natalie Laurent

Abstract

The global financial system has faced unprecedented challenges in recent years, with crises ranging from pandemics to cyber-attacks exposing critical vulnerabilities in traditional business continuity planning approaches. Banking institutions, as the backbone of economic stability, require robust continuity frameworks that can withstand complex, multi-dimensional disruptions. Conventional business continuity planning in banking has primarily focused on disaster recovery of IT systems and backup site activation, often neglecting the intricate interdependencies between technological, operational, and human factors during crises. This research addresses this gap by developing a comprehensive framework that integrates novel computational approaches with practical banking operations. Traditional continuity planning suffers from several limitations, including static risk assessments that fail to adapt to evolving crisis conditions, siloed planning that ignores cross-functional dependencies, and inadequate consideration of cascading failures across interconnected banking systems. The 2008 financial crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, and recent major cyber incidents have demonstrated that crises rarely occur in isolation and often trigger secondary and tertiary disruptions that overwhelm conventional planning frameworks. This paper introduces a fundamentally new approach to business continuity planning that leverages quantum-inspired optimization algorithms, dynamic resource modeling, and real-time crisis adaptation mechanisms. The research was conducted through collaboration with three major banking institutions, allowing for practical validation of the proposed framework under simulated crisis conditions. The novelty of this approach lies in its ability to create self-adjusting continuity plans that respond to changing crisis parameters while maintaining critical banking operations.