Business Continuity Planning Information

As part of our ongoing commitment to inform and engage our clients, we would like to give you an update on Van Kampen’s Business Continuity Planning ("BCP") Program for the Americas.

Van Kampen has taken significant steps to mitigate the impacts of business interruptions resulting from a wide variety of potential events, including the loss of key facilities and resources.

The BCP process begins with each business division reviewing its business continuity risk. This process encompasses all aspects of the Firm’s key activities including, but not limited to, trading, sales, settlement, clearance, custody, and funding. This assessment defines, for each business process, its criticality, exposure to risk, and likelihood of failure.

Business units then develop plans to mitigate interruptions of processes deemed critical. Critical data and system applications are replicated, and alternative systems and procedures, including manual work-arounds, are identified to enable continued functionality upon the occurrence of an event. The individual business unit plans are captured and updated in a disaster recovery application and database, and we review the plans on a bi-annual basis. Testing is undertaken involving business divisions and support functions, such as information technology, facilities, operations, finance and internal audit.

Another key element of our program is a command and control network designed to monitor internal and external status items, manage escalation procedures, and provide a rapid response mechanism to address critical issues. The objective of the network is to enable Firm management on both a global and regional basis to monitor and manage a BCP incident and any material impact an event may have on the Firm’s business activities.

We believe that our Firm’s successful response to the events of September 11th and the 2003 East Coast Blackout is a reliable indicator of the effectiveness of our BCP approach. While our plans attempt to deal with the potential likely impact of a wide variety of scenarios, any specific response will inevitably be highly dependent upon the nature and extent of the incident. Our plans are subject to modification at any time.

Planned Scenarios and Responses   Outage Scenario Response Recovery Time Single Building Outage Staff and Workspace Recovery Branch Offices Recovery essential personnel are relocated to other branch offices and/or work from home. Customer toll-free lines are redirected to Call Centers with qualified service personnel, or to other branches. Any functions not handled by a Call Center are performed by a regional service center or another branch. Other Departments Recovery essential personnel are relocated to contingency facilities both within and outside of our major metropolitan facilities. Some staff members are already pre-positioned in facilities outside of those major metropolitan facilities. Data Center Recovery Van Kampen has implemented a robust data center back-up strategy both within the Greater New York Area, and in distant facilities in the Southwestern, Central and Western United States. Each of these data centers is housed in a hardened facility protected by emergency power, and serviced by separate utility grids and multiple telecommunications carriers. Four to 24 hours 1 Manhattan Outage Staff and Workspace Recovery Recovery essential personnel are relocated to contingency facilities outside of Manhattan. Some staff members are already pre-positioned in facilities outside of Manhattan. Data Center Recovery Same as Single Building Outage (see above). Critical data is copied and maintained in a hardened facility outside of New York City. Four to 24 hours 2 Greater New York Area Outage Staff and Workspace Recovery Leverage staff in distant locations (e.g., Baltimore, London) Data Center Recovery Same as Single Building Outage (see above). Critical data is copied and maintained in a hardened facility outside of New York City. Four to 24 hours 2 1 Recovery times vary according to the criticality of certain businesses and functions. 2 Under these conditions, a four-hour recovery is contingent on the nature of the event and that critical industry and municipal infrastructure are fully functional. The Firm has two physically separated data centers in the New York City area. To achieve a four hour recovery time objective, we anticipate that at least one of the data centers is operational. To the extent possible, the Firm intends to continue business during the outage.

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