FirstBank readies for hurricane season by hosting ‘A resilient bank’ seminar
Aware of the importance of keeping the bank’s operations functional in the face of natural disasters, FirstBank’s management recently trained some 150 employees, members of its Emergency Committee, with the “A resilient bank” seminar in an activity at the Puerto Rico Convention Center.
The half-day seminar featured a list of speakers, including FirstBank President Aurelio Alemán; COO Donald Kafka; Meteorologist Ada Monzón; search and rescue expert Nino Correa; Jesús Ortiz, Community Emergency Response Team instructor; and José Martínez-Cruzado, professor at the University of Puerto Rico’s Mayagüez campus.
“This seminar will reinforce the knowledge that our Emergency Committee acquired last year and that were key to maintaining the bank’s operations after the passage of Hurricanes Irma and María,” said Kafka, who is also director of FirstBank’s Emergency Committee.
In addition to the installations of storm shutters, and ensuring the operation of the power generators, FirstBank made sure to maintain a sufficient supply of cash at the branches and ATMs so that their customers and non-customers had access to the money they needed to face the emergency.
“The basis of all preparation is to have the technology and resources necessary to ensure business operations. In our case, we have been updating our operational technology over the past few years, and this helped our systems to never be out of service,” Kafka said.
