The guidelines are presented in five parts:

Part A, Governance and strategy, covers aspects related to defining the institutional approach and the strategy for crisis management before the crisis or the incident.

Part B, Institutional capacity and resilience to face crises, deals with developing protocols, processes, systems, registries, etc., to enable better service delivery during crises.

Part C, Continuity of existing services, focuses on options for ensuring service delivery during crises and incidents, i.e. delivering essentially the same services to the same customers but with the necessary adjustments.

Part D, Deployment of responses, provides options for expanding services and benefits to support customers and other persons affected by the crisis.

Part E, Branch-specific considerations, presents suggestions for the implementation of the above measures.

Within each part, specific guidelines are grouped according to particular elements of business continuity and resilience. They are presented as follows:

Guideline. The guideline is stated as clearly as possible.

Structure. This is the suggested structure for the particular aspect of continuity that may support the application of the guideline and facilitate the promotion of the underlying principle. A sound structure is essential in order to effectively address business continuity and readiness.

Mechanism. There are different ways to implement a guideline. The suggested mechanisms for addressing the business continuity and resilience guideline are designed to ensure appropriate response structure and timely mitigation of risks, successful outcomes, and regular monitoring and evaluation.

In these Guidelines, the risk ranagement unit refers to the institution’s team responsible for the identification and evaluation of risks, implementation of a risk mitigation framework, coordination of implementation activities and mechanisms to mitigate risks and, overall, ensure that the institution is aligned with the business continuity and resilience plans established for this purpose. In turn, the Operations Unit refers to instititution’s staff in charge of executing the main business processes. To implement the suggested guidelines, the institution may further establish specialized units to conduct activities related to the application of business continuity and resilience.