The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency on Saturday updated guidance, broadening the list of jobs deemed to be “essential critical infrastructure workers.” This guidance is intended to aid state and local governments as they make determinations about the activities that should continue normal operations during the coronavirus pandemic.
Functions newly included in the revised guidance are verifying and recording financial transactions; commercial lending and banking services; maintenance of orderly market operations; nonbank financial services and money transmitters; financial services call centers; production and distribution of debit and credit cards; and electronic point-of-sale support for essential businesses.
These functions join those included in the original guidance: workers who are needed to process and maintain systems for processing financial transactions and services; workers who are needed to provide consumer access to banking and lending services, including ATMs, and to move currency and payments; and workers who support financial operations such as those staffing data and security operations centers.
While the CISA list is advisory in nature, and is not considered to be a federal directive or standard in and of itself, many localities implementing stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders to combat the spread of COVID-19 rely on it to determine whether individuals may go to work. The Treasury Department has issued documentation that essential financial services employees can carry to demonstrate that they must go to work. The documentation should be accompanied by the CISA guidance and a bank ID or official bank document confirming their essential status.
