Hong Leong Finance (HLF) underwent simulated terrorist and cyber attacks recently as part of Singapore’s financial sector’s efforts to ensure they had sound plans in place in the event of a crisis.

The large-scale, industry-wide event code-named Exercise Raffles was the fifth to be staged since its inception in 2006.

This year’s exercise involved 139 financial institutions, including banks, finance companies, insurers, industry associations, the Singapore Exchange and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Financial institutions practised established crisis-management and contingency plans in response to simulated scenarios on terrorist and cyber-attacks that had disrupted operations and resulted in the unavailability of services.

The exercise was conducted with the support of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Singapore Police Force, the Ministry of Communications and Information, the CyberSecurity Agency of Singapore and the building and facilities management of about 50 buildings.