Resilience will be particularly important for countries most exposed to the impacts of climate change, which will result in more frequent and severe weather events. This is according to the latest research from Verisk Maplecroft, which flags climate change as the most important cross-border risk affecting the long-term outlook for global investment. More than 50% of countries are categorised as ‘extreme’ or ‘high risk’ in the GRRA’s Climate Change Exposure Index, with the key Asian economies of Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Japan, Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam and India among the highest risk.

Congratulations to all our finalists in this year's Business Continuity Awards, celebrating the very best in your sector. Winners will be announced at a gala dinner and awards presentation, during an evening of networking with hundreds of the business continuity and resilience professionals. Hosted by a celebrated comedian – to be announced shortly – the 2015 Awards will be a night to remember. This year’s finalists are…

Figures from Sungard Availability Services show that UK invocations have hit their highest levels since 2009. Overall incidents of downtime, in which staff are unable to work from their usual office or access business critical systems, also rose by over a third since 2013, leading to concerns that organisations are failing to sufficiently invest in the strategies and solutions required to maintain availability.

Analysis from business continuity and disaster recovery provider, Phoenix, finds that customers using Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) are far more likely to undertake regular tests and plan rehearsals. This suggests that customers find it easier to test with DRaaS in place than customers who have traditional business continuity services, where Phoenix has seen only 40% of its customers testing.

Business standards company, BSI has produced a list of top tips for business continuity planning. 1). Identify critical business functions – Once critical business functions have been identified, it is possible to apply a methodical approach to the threats that are posed to them and implement the most effective plans. 2). Remember the seven ‘P’s needed to keep your business operational – Providers, performance, processes, people, premises, profile (your brand) and preparation.

A third of businesses in the manufacturing industry are extremely concerned about potential supply chain disruption according to research released by BSI, the business standards company and the Business Continuity Institute (BCI). More than three quarters of manufacturing firms report increasing supply chain complexity as the fastest growing risk in business continuity, with malicious attacks via the internet and increased regulatory scrutiny taking second and third place.

Adam Continuity has selected Datum Datacentres for high security high availability co-location. Datum's facility, located on the government-grade secure Cody Technology Park, offers an SLA based on 100% uptime. Being carrier and cloud neutral the facility provides choice and flexibility of connectivity, while the Datum Cloud Hub ecosystem enables co-located organisations to directly connect to providers and cloud platforms for hybrid IT.

A study assessing the natural hazard exposure of the world’s cities has exposed those most at risk, and highlights the potential risks to foreign business, supply chains and economic output in one particular continent. It highlights the manufacturing and logistics hubs in these cities as most at risk…

US-based message notification provider, One Call Now has acquired UK-based Safeguard Communications. The combined company delivers a powerful solution set designed to address organisations’ business continuity, emergency notification as well as customer notification messaging needs.

Willis and Miller have entered into exclusive talks to create a London wholesale specialist broking firm. The proposed transaction will combine their wholesale businesses to trade under the Miller brand, governed and regulated as a standalone legal entity and separate Lloyd’s broker.

Tesco has launched a new interactive platform to boost collaboration, innovation and sustainability across its suppliers. The Tesco Supplier Network brings together over 5,000 members from across the world. Members will be able to connect directly with Tesco teams, and learn from each other on issues such as energy, food waste or innovation.

Businesses face new challenges from a rise of disruptive scenarios in an increasingly interconnected corporate environment, according to the fourth Allianz Risk Barometer 2015. In addition, globally traditional industrial risks such as business interruption and supply chain risk (46% of responses), natural catastrophes (30%), and fire and explosion (27%) continue to concern risk experts, heading this year’s rankings. Cyber (17%) and political risks (11%) are the most significant movers. The survey was conducted among more than 500 risk managers and corporate insurance experts from both Allianz and global businesses in 47 countries.

Ecuador's largest private bank, Banco Pichincha, is deploying MetricStream’s cloud-based solution for business continuity management to help minimise the impact of business disruptions as well as aid in crisis and incident management planning by streamlining and automating the BCM lifecycle. It will also provide an integrated framework to collaboratively manage all BCM processes, including BIA, business continuity planning, testing of plans, and issue management and remediation. The solution will be rolled out in Spanish to support local users.

The UK government’s first ever long-term flood defence investment programme has been announced, designed to protect over 300,000 properties, reduce flood risk by 5% and save the economy £2.7bn by 2021. The six year plan, the government says, will cost £2.3bn.

Businesses need to be aware how much damage the ‘fear multiplier’ from deadly diseases such as Ebola and emerging infectious diseases could cause them, the Cambridge Centre for Risk Studies warns.