Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Plan Disclosure
StoneCastle Securities LLC has a business continuity plan to assess and manage the effects of a significant emergency disruption on its business operations and to provide continuity of critical business functions. Such critical business functions include entering of client orders and completing securities transactions. We accomplish this in part by having in place:
Procedures to back-up (duplicate and preserve) data in locations remote from our offices;
Facilities and procedures that permit us to replicate, supplement, and replace all mission-critical systems;
Procedures and facilities for alternative means of communications with customers and alternative locations and systems through which to conduct our business; and
Procedures to remain in contact with critical vendors, suppliers, regulators and business partners and counterparties.
Contacting the Firm
In the event of an SBD, our cloud-based phone system ensures that clients will experience little to no delay in contacting their representatives through the trading desk phone # (212) 887-1171. The Operations Manager can also be reached through this phone number.
Our Associated Personnel will continue to take customer orders or instructions via phone or internet where service is available and are set up to post alternative phone numbers on the StoneCastle Securities’ web site: https://www.stonecastlesecurities.com, at the time of the disruption. In addition, all sales and operations personnel are set up to work securely from any remote location including their home through the Firm’s virtual private network (VPN).
The Firm has the option to relocate staff to offices at 4250 Veterans Memorial Highway, Ste. 2100W, Holbrook, NY 11741, the location of our compliance consultant, Asgard Regulatory Group LLC. Asgard’s main telephone number is (631) 801-2900.
Data Back-Up and Recovery (Electronic)
The firm maintains its primary hard copy books and records at the firm’s main office located at 152 West 57th Street, 52nd Floor, New York, NY 10019. StoneCastle utilizes cloud backup services provided by AWS and Carbonite and include a failover location based in the Pacific NW, were the main backup data center, on the East Coast to experience an SBD.
Safeguarding Client Assets
With regard to client assets, all market-traded securities are held in central depositories (such as the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp. in the U.S.) or with custodian banks. Ownership of the securities is reflected on a book-entry record-keeping basis with our clearing agent, custodian banks or depositories’ participants maintaining the beneficial ownership positions of their customers. These market participants are all subject to regulatory requirements to implement BCP and Disaster Recovery Plans to protect the funds and securities they hold on behalf of our institutional clients.
Although we have taken significant steps to develop and implement sound business recovery plans, we cannot guarantee that systems will always be available or recoverable after a disaster or significant business disruption. However, we believe that our planning for such events is sound and consistent with industry best practices. If you have further questions regarding our business continuity plans, please contact your StoneCastle Securities representative at (212) 887-1171 or our Compliance area at (347) 887-0304