Compliance Glossary

A Business Impact Analysis (BIA) is a critical process that predicts the potential consequences of a disruption to your business. It collects information necessary for creating proper recovery strategies.

The extent and complexity of your BIA should align with your organization’s size and intricacy. Larger and more complex institutions may have a more detailed list of business processes to review during their BIA. 

For example, while smaller institutions might address “Administrative” functions as one process, larger ones may break it down further into processes like “Accounts Payable,” “Human Resources,” and “Payroll.” 

Examples of standard business processes that might be assessed include:

• Administrative
• Investment
• Trust
• Back-office
• Customer service
• Information technology
• Accounting
• Lending
• Marketing
• Compliance
• Retail

Disruptions and their impacts

The BIA helps you anticipate various disruptions and their potential impacts on your business, such as:

• Data breaches or cyberattacks could harm your security 
• Scheduling delays could mess up your plans 
• Natural disasters or power outages could stop your operations 
• Equipment failures could slow things down 
• Losing key employees or suppliers could be a big setback