Learning from the Past

Oppenheimer Funds Director of Media Relations Greg Stitt says his firm learned a valuable lesson after the World Trade Center was bombed in the early '90s. Since then, he says that Oppenheimer--which occupied floors 31 through 34 and 37 of 2 World Trade Center--has been conducting test runs of its contingency plans every six months.

Stitt says the firm's corporate offices, senior executives, corporate marketing and sales were all in N.Y., while dealer servicing, customer service, back-office fund accounting and record keeping are all housed in Denver. Trading and portfolio management, he says, were backed up at a facility in N.J. "We didn't lose anything as far as accounting information, shareholder information or record keeping because that was always backed up on a daily basis," says Stitt.

He adds that all 598 of the firm's employees have been safely accounted for and within seven hours of the attack, Oppenheimer had portfolio management up at its N.J. facility--within 48 hours the firm was "totally recovered."