Summary Disclosure Statement of Business Continuity Practices
Principal Funds Distributor, Inc. (PFD) is dedicated to facilitating the distribution of the Principal mutual funds. In support of this effort, we have developed a written "Business Continuity Plan" (BCP) to help ensure that our core business processes can be performed under a variety of foreseeable adverse circumstances of varying scope. Our plan provides for the continuation of our business in the event of a Significant Business Disruption (SBD).
Due to the limited nature of our FINRA membership agreement, PFD does not maintain customer accounts. As a result, our BCPs are also limited in nature. Our plan provides for the continuation of crucial operations and other activities subsequent to a variety of disruptions. We utilize many approaches to accomplish this goal, including archiving systems data, maintaining alternate business recovery sites, and contracting for off-site storage of data. In formulating our plan, we have anticipated several "levels" of SBDs that anticipate the possibility that a disruption may be either internal (a single isolated failure limited solely to our firm) or that the disruption may be external in nature (a disruption that may prevent the operation of the securities markets or a number of firms, such as a terrorist attack, a city flood, or a wide-scale, regional disruption).
In developing our BCP, we have considered a variety of scenarios which may cause our business to be disrupted. Examples of these scenarios include a loss of computer abilities, a loss of communications, or an inability to occupy our offices. Once our BCP has been initiated, we will pursue the protection of firm staff and firm property, then begin to perform financial and operations assessments, recover and resume operations, and protect the firm's books and records. Additional time may be required to retrieve any lost data from off-site storage facilities or to complete a transition to a secondary location, but our goal is to otherwise resume operations within 24 hours of a disruption. (This includes disruptions to any systems, buildings, business districts, cities, or regions.)
In the event of a SBD which results in the need to implement our BCP, our plan provides for us to transition our business operations to alternative physical locations. These alternate sites are geographically disperse, and back up data for each site is maintained, and can be used to rebuild systems when necessary.
Although no BCP can accommodate every potential disruption, our plan is reviewed at least annually to ensure appropriate enhancements are implemented due to changes in our business activities or to accommodate revised regulatory requirements. Should material changes to the plan occur, this 'Summary Disclosure Statement' as well as the actual BCP will be updated as necessary.