Financial Infrastructure Crisis Preparedness Committee (BFI)

The Financial Infrastructure Crisis Preparedness Committee (BFI) provides a platform for coordinating contingency planning, information sharing and crisis management. Its work encompasses both preventive measures and the handling of serious ICT incidents that may cause major disruptions to the financial infrastructure. The committee's main tasks include reviewing relevant ICT incidents, assessing and discussing developments in the threat landscape, undertaking contingency planning and preparedness activities, conducting exercises and facilitating information and experience sharing.

About BFI

Each individual player in the financial sector has an independent responsibility for ensuring an acceptable level of risk in its operations. This includes responsibility for ensuring safe and stable operating solutions and good backup solutions and emergency response systems, and for actively contributing to a robust financial infrastructure. BFI was established in 2000 to coordinate contingency preparedness efforts across the financial sector. 

In a crisis situation, BFI shall notify and inform affected entities and authorities of the problems that have occurred, the potential consequences of the problems and the measures that must be implemented to resolve the problems. 

BFI shall ensure the necessary coordination of preparedness matters across the financial sector, which includes, based on the civil preparedness system, coordinating the preparation and implementation of notification plans and preparedness measures in the event of national security policy crises and war.

Finanstilsynet chairs and serves as the secretariat for BFI. BFI normally has three regular meetings each year. At the meetings, the committee is updated on serious incidents that have occurred during the period.

An important task for BFI is to hold annual emergency preparedness exercises. Annual reports are prepared on BFI’s work.

The following public authorities and institutions are represented on the committee as members, with designated alternates, or as observers:

  • Finanstilsynet
  • Norges Bank
  • Ministry of Finance
  • Bits AS (the banking and financial services industry’s infrastructure company, owned by Finance Norway)
  • Stø AS
  • Nets Branch Norway
  • Mastercard Payment Services
  • Tietoevry Norway
  • Verdipapirsentralen ASA (VPS) (Euronext Securities Oslo)
  • DNB Bank ASA
  • Nordea Bank ABP, Norwegian branch
  • SpareBank 1 Utvikling DA (representing the banks in the SpareBank 1 Alliance)
  • Eika Gruppen AS (representing the banks in the Eika Alliance)
  • Danske Bank A/S NUF
  • Nordic Financial CERT (NFCERT)

In addition, there are observers from the telecommunications and power sectors, the Norwegian National Security Authority, the Norwegian Banks' Guarantee Fund, Finance Norway and the securities and securities dealer sector.