To Our Valued Mutual Fund Shareholders:
We take great pride in the trust that our customers place in us. With that in mind, we want to tell you about our business continuity plan which documents how we will respond to a significant business disruption. Our plan is designed to enable us to promptly resume our business operations while providing you with ways to access your account information during our recovery period.
We maintain a business continuity plan that covers all aspects of the resumption of our business processes in the event of a significant disruption or emergency. Our plan addresses: data back-up and recovery; all mission critical systems; financial and operational assessments; alternative communications with customers, employees, and regulators; alternate physical location of employees; critical supplier and contractor impact; regulatory reporting; and assuring our customers prompt access to their funds and securities.
The plan is updated whenever there is a material change to our business, and it is subject to periodic formal reviews, including business risk assessments. Changes to processes, products, or business environments are evaluated, and required modifications to the configuration of our recovery sites (described below) are performed. Current copies of our business continuity plan are maintained by various individuals at our firm.
As part of our business recovery plan, we maintain alternate business resumption sites for our employees that provide us with operational redundancy in the event of an emergency at our primary location. These facilities provide for the relocation of our employees so that we may resume processing operations and trading functions.
Each employee's workstation at our relocation sites is equipped with all the software, as well as all the telecommunication equipment, needed for each associate to continue to provide client service. Our alternate sites have centralized faxes and printer rooms where communications are controlled. We also employ telephone rollover technology whereby inbound calls and faxes are re-routed to the appropriate alternate business resumption site.
Whether we are affected by a firm only, single building, business district, citywide or regional disruption, our firm's policy is clear: We will safeguard our employees' lives, make immediate financial and operational assessments, and work to quickly recover and resume operations. In the event of an emergency, our goal is to restore operations and resume transacting business as soon as possible.
During the recovery period, you may access your investments electronically using the following options:
Please note that before you can access your account through www.bnymellonim.com/us, you will need a user ID and password. For account access via Express Voice-Activated Account Access System, you will need your Social Security number or account number and a PIN. You can create or reset your user ID and password by visiting www.bnymellonim.com/us, or your PIN by calling Express Voice-Activated Account Access System at 1-800-645-6561.
We urge you to take a moment today to make sure that you are able to access your account through www.bnymellonim.com/us and/or Express Voice-Activated Account Access System. This will help to ensure that you have access to your account in the unlikely event of a business disruption.
Regardless of all the effort put into our business continuity plan, we acknowledge that no plan for disaster recovery is infallible. Every emergency situation poses unique challenges, and the unpredictable nature and severity of disasters make it impossible to predict every scenario that could cause a disruption, thus precluding absolute preparedness in all circumstances. While our business continuity plan is tested periodically, such testing may not be able to replicate actual emergency conditions.
Depending upon the emergency, we cannot guarantee that we will follow our plan's stated course of action, and our business recovery plan is subject to modification without notice as conditions require.
Also, certain situations may arise that affect the securities markets and/or the external service providers upon which we rely, and your transactions or requests for funds could be delayed during such a disruption. Please be assured that, in the event of a disaster, we will work as quickly as possible to provide you with the access to the excellent customer service that you have come to expect from us.
MARK-297217-2022-08-30