RESERVE BANK INFORMATION & TRANSFER SYSTEM
RITS
July 2008
SUMMARY OF RITS BUSINESS CONTINUITY ARRANGEMENTS
The Reserve Bank Information and Transfer System (RITS) is Australia’s real-time
interbank payment and settlement system. RITS is owned and operated by the Reserve
Bank and plays a central role in the Australian payments system. About 90 per cent of the
value of all payments in Australia is settled on a real-time gross settlement (RTGS) basis
through RITS. The system is also used to settle low-value payments on a net basis. The
resilience and reliability of RITS is essential to the smooth functioning of the Australian
payments system.
RITS is Australia’s systemically important payment system and, as such, has been assessed
by the International Monetary Fund as part of its Financial Sector Assessment Program
(FSAP) for Australia. The assessment confirmed that RITS is a sound and efficient system
that complies with all the applicable Core Principles.
Given the critical nature of RITS operations, the system’s availability and integrity are of
utmost importance. As part of its overall approach to risk management, the Reserve Bank
has developed business continuity arrangements for RITS that enhance its resilience and
minimise the likelihood of operational disruptions by preparing for major contingency
events such as:
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loss of access to operating sites;
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loss of systems or supporting infrastructure; and
•
unavailability of critical staff to support its operations (as may be the case during a
pandemic).
To address the risk of hardware or facilities malfunction, the Reserve Bank maintains fully
redundant systems and an automated failover arrangement of system components at its
Head Office. If one or more components within the primary system fail(s), the equivalent
redundant component takes over. It is only if an outage of both components at Head Office
were to occur that a failover to a secondary site would be required.
In line with this, and as part of its overall business continuity planning, the Reserve Bank
operates a Business Resumption Site (BRS) outside of the Sydney CBD. This facility
provides a high level of back-up capability for the Bank’s critical operations, including
RITS and its associated SWIFT interface. Fully redundant computer systems supporting
RITS are in place at the BRS which in most cases mirror those at its Head Office.
A complement of operational and support staff is permanently based at the BRS to
immediately assume operations should either the production systems at Head Office and/or
the building itself become unavailable during operating hours.
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RITS data from the Reserve Bank’s primary site is replicated to the systems at the BRS in
real-time to ensure that transactional information is protected. If a failover to the BRS is
required, the target recovery times are 20 minutes for RITS and 40 minutes for SWIFT for
full failover, and around 15 minutes for a failover of individual components.
To help ensure that business continuity arrangements, including contingency procedures,
are up to date and efficient, the Reserve Bank regularly reviews and tests its recovery
procedures. It conducts regular testing of various contingency scenarios relating to:
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•
•
•
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component failure at a site;
total system failure at a site with failover to the alternate site (Head Office or BRS);
remote access to a site’s systems;
external infrastructure outages; and
total site outage (staff and systems).
To improve communications during a contingency event, the Reserve Bank has
implemented a web-based communication facility which enables the combined use of
email, voice and SMS to disseminate important messages regarding RITS during
significant incidents. The Bank maintains a list of Member contact details to allow for
ready communication.
To supplement the abovementioned arrangements, all critical operational staff are also able
to connect to the Reserve Bank’s systems through the internet and perform essential
operations remotely, if necessary. From time to time, load tests are conducted whereby
critical staff prove the capacity of the Bank’s virtual private network.
For further information, please contact me on 02 9551 8941 or gallagherp@rba.gov.au.
Peter Gallagher
Senior Manager, Planning and Client Relations
Reserve Bank of Australia