The City of London financial services sector will next month test how it would cope with a bird flu pandemic in an exercise run by finance industry regulators.
The Bank of England, the Financial Services Authority and the Treasury will organise the bird flu simulation event, which will run from October 13th to November 24th.
More than 60 organisations from the financial services industry have been asked to take part.
These three bodies co-operate on business continuity planning for incidents that could cause major disruptions to the City of London financial services industry, one of the world's biggest financial centres and home to some of the world's biggest banks.
The simulation of a major crisis has become an annual event.
During next month's exercise banks and financial services firms will receive regular updates on the severity of the pandemic, its effect on them and on the wider economy.
Banks will review if contingency plans they have made can actually cope in the face of rampant bird flu, which will mean reduced staffing levels, disruption to transport, power and telecoms.
The authorities will publish a report on the exercise after it is completed.