I've just read Time Bomb 2000 and think it's an excellent book. However, I think the banking system might be in better shape than we fear. Banks were among the FIRST places to deak with Y2K repairs. Mortgage lenders had to become Y2K compliant way back in 1970, when they tried to issue 30 year loans. In order to issue loans that would be paid back in the year 2000 or later, they had to handle Y2K a full 20 years before other industries even noticed the problem. What do others think?

-- Elisabeth Riba (lis@netcom.com), June 15, 1998

Answers

No, they didn't become compliant. They probably just fixed the program so a mortgage terminating in 20xx didn't crash it. Quite possibly a mortgage starting in 20xx still willcrash it; fixing one bug does noting about the others!

On the plus side, the banking community is far more Y2K-aware than most. They are at least doing something - opinions vary as to whether it'll be enough.

On the minus side: if panic breaks out there may be a run on the banks. It would be quite possible for "the system" to fail in 1999 even though the computers prove to be perfectly OK in 2000. (There *were* no computers in the 1930s, which is the last time "the system" failed).

-- Nigel Arnot (nra@maxwell.ph.kcl.ac.uk), June 15, 1998.

Elisabeth said:

"I think the banking system might be in better shape than we fear."

Interesting statement.

Even if the banks were fixed, which I highly doubt, their suppliers up and down stream may not be and the Feds may not be.

so, it is of no avail for the Banks. When people find out that they may not get their paychecks, retirement checks etc., then I would venture to guess that any money that they have in the Bank, would feel better in their pocket.

-- Dave Jones (dfj@fea.net), June 15, 1998.

Banks, and other mortgage lenders, did get Y2K complient in the late 60's in order to deal with mortgages, but only in those areas necessary to deal with the limited problem they had at the time: mortgages. Other systems were ignored by most institutions.

-- Paul Neuhardt (neuhardt@ultranet.com), June 16, 1998.

Last summer, in an article in the LA Times, a representative of BofA said they had been working on the Y2K problem since 1970 when they first had a problem, trying to make 30 mortgages. At that time, summer 1997, they had 1000 people working on the problem and she was sure they'd get it fixed. She wasn't going to take her money out of the bank! Excuse me. 27 years and they've still got 1000 people working on it? A few weeks ago, early June 1998 an article by Reuters discussed raids by US companies for British programmers, offering them huge salaries and perks to come to the US and work on Y2k. One of the American companies mentioned as having a $350 million budget for Y2k expenses, including programmers salaries - was B.OF A. So how well do you think the banks are doing in spite of their early warning? My bank's Web Page doesn't even mention Year 2000 or Y2k. Should I trust them to have it fixed and tested by next spring or summer?

-- E.C. Cowan (ecc123@aol.com), June 21, 1998.