Collaboration between banks on disaster recovery has increased in the five years since the attacks, according to Bank of New York, whose headquarters are two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center.

Business continuity has become more important to management since the attacks on the US, the bank said. Dennis Jobin, managing director and head of business continuity at Bank of New York, said: "The increased emphasis on industry collaboration speaks to the recognition that when it comes to resilience financial institutions are all in the same boat." Like many other banks in the area, Bank of New York made changes to its disaster recovery programme after the attacks on lower Manhattan. It set up a recovery site, invested in telecoms and spread its operational functions geographically. Jobin said: "We have our own reserve data centre. It is not a reflection on the service provided to us, rather we experienced a decreased appetite for a shared business continuity service." The bank's telecommunications arrangements were its Achilles' heel on the day of the attack, Jobin said. It has also changed its policy on the location of offices. "We that no two critical business functions are located in the same region," Jobin said.