Received the following from my local bank:

"The Borad of directors and senior management of Feather River State Bank have endorsed a plan that include assessment, renovation and implementation. Our plan has been reviewed by our general accounting firm and the FDIC. Our plan is designed to comply with all federal guidelines put forth to ensure data integrity for all banks under the FDIC jurisdiction."

"As of this date ( August 24, 1998) we purchased and installed a Unisys NX4200 Clearpath mainframe which is certified year 2000 compliant. The deposit and loan application software we use is from Information Technology Inc. of Lincoln, Nebraska. You may be familiar with this company, as it is on of the leading suppliers of Banking software to independent banks in the United States, providing service to over 1000 banks nationwide. The ITI software is already year 2000 compliant as it holds internally 4 digit year fields nad done sone since 1988. Testing this system will be complete by year end (1998)."

Our ATM's have been upgraded with a year 2000 ready memory chip. Testing for ATM's is shceduled for Nnovember of 1998."

"We are currently monitoring the progress of the outside vendors we sue to provide services to us and our customers. As is outlined in our plan, we will discontinue business with any company that fails to certify year 2000 compliant within the schedule we have outlined for the vendor."

"Please be assured we are taking steps to ensure the integrity of our customers' deposits and ultimately the safety and soundness of our institution. Your questions are welcome anytime." -Martha Cassi, Vice President/MIS, Feather River State Bank, P.O. Box 929002, Yuba City, CA 95992 (530) 671-2265

- Robert

-- R. Cowing (holycow@mother.com), October 21, 1998

Answers

As I have said before - the flood is about to start! By next April you will hear at least a dozen such announcements each day.

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 21, 1998.

Yep, and it won't be long before Y2K is a thing of the past. All this hype has been fun to watch though. Just goes to show you, not everyone is a liar like most of you think.

-- Believer (OYe@littlefaith.com), October 21, 1998.

Believer, dream on. This Year 2000 Problem is not going to just go away, as much as you might want that to happen.

-- Realist (dreamon@youwish.com), October 21, 1998.

Of course there will be companies that get compliant, probably thousands of them. Each with a PR notice and a little article in the newspaper just so you can post it. So What? If 20% of all the banks and other financial institutions go under, you are still talking Depression at best. Further, in order for these internally compliant banks to externally exchange data, they have to have a common standard for date handling. As far as I know, no such standard exists even now. If thats not true, would some lurker please divulge the secret! So if Bank A uses windowing and Bank B uses expansion, they could be effectively isolated and that is nearly as bad as being noncompliant. Furthermore, both Bank A and Bank B will need additional software on the front end to edit and catch bad imported data before it gets passed on. That edit software had also better notify the sendee that their data is screwed in some way. Think about it. Thousands of banks each with its own unique programming staff with their own flavor of the month approach. There is going to be a lot of "compliant" data being passed around thats only compliant at "home".

-- R. D..Herring (drherr@erols.com), October 21, 1998.

R.D. the standards for data transfer between banks are older than my kids. My job does not require me to know the exact format - why not ask your bank. Compliant includes 'compliant to the standard' data. They are not exchanging internal program data (whooaaaa what a mess that would be). If there is a depression or recession so be it - my father lived through the 30's depression and I lived through the 78 recession in the midwest - the old timers said it was worse in some ways - easier in others. Depression ain't TEOTWAWKI. In fact it kinda amuses me to think about the political side of things if there is a depression - all of a sudden about 50 million spoiled conservative Republican (yes I smoked pot just like Newt but I am one of the good guys) yuppies with Harvard Business School MBA's are gonna be out of work and not know how to do anything remotely useful - want to bet on just how they will vote next time around?

-- Paul Davis (davisp1953@yahoo.com), October 21, 1998.

Folks, we are still "riding on a smile and a shoe shine" here, with promises, promises. I hope our banking system (not to mention lots of other important institutions!) will achieve Y2K compliance, but forgive me for not quite celebrating yet. Banks would be the first to feel the "Y2K backlash" from John Q. Public, as bank runs would certainly not be out of the question if people lost confidence, hence their happy-face announcements. I would urge everyone to keep on top of their local banks, especially when hard dates are given, and ask if the dates are being met. (Of course, indeed, we are in an interdependent world, so we pretty much have to have everyone there ... but One Day At A Time; Change The Things That I Can; etc.) == Maybe we ought to start some kind of pool here, like whether we will have a single Y2K compliant bank by the end of the year??

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), October 21, 1998.

That kind of announcement is the only one that means something.

Clear, uncluttered, "we haven't tested yet", "tests are scheduled by...", "this is what we have done, this is what remains to be done."

So tell them they did a good job.

Hey, this whole problem can be solved, one company at a time. Or a whole herd of them at once. Great. 99,999,998 to go.

But notice that they did NOT say: we found nothing wrong, we wasted our money, we would never had done this if we knew then what we know now. Nobody who is close to finishing or who has issued progress reports has ever said that.

So anybody (any company) who remains a skeptic (this isn't a problem) deserves the failure that is theirs to earn.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (cook.r@csaatl.com), October 21, 1998.

Ask the bank pres, will that new computer and ATM chip run with no power? Banks have less than 8 hours of back up power from their generators, if they have generators.

-- Bill (bill@microsoft.com), October 22, 1998.

Bill !!!! What the hell good is going to do to ask the bank president if the bank can run with no power? Are you people morons or what? OF COURSE IT WON'T RUN WITH NO POWER!! Why jump all over your bank's ass? Why.do you all insist on badgering these people? Do you think they feel good about what's going on? What are they supposed to do? They all have families too! Don't you think they are worried? All these people who you insist on hammering away are are human beings with the same fears you have. I'm sure all these companines are doing the best they can. I can't believe the uppity pompous asses on this forum. If you all have such great answers, then go fix the problem yourselves. Oh gee...whine...I think I'm going to be depressed...What a bunch of whiners!!

-- Believer (OYe@littlefaith.com), October 22, 1998.

Believer....Must you be so dog gone naughty? Your language is that of a sailor. (no offense my hubby was once one to those who still are) This is a forum to discuss feelings, why do you insist all are whiners? If you are so disgusted, why dont you go to a chat room where you can verbally vent and for language such as you use, they will boot you off.??????? Shame on you....I bet you call yourself a christian?

-- Just lil ol me (no@aol.com), October 22, 1998.

Let Believer have his little rant, he is just as human as the poor folks at the bank that he is defending. I'm not sure what it is he (her, it?) believes in though. Sarcasm?

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 22, 1998.

RD: Banks must be currently exchanging data in a manner that is successful while some are y2k compliant and others are not there yet. Hence, one can safely assume (Vultures, please don't ridicule for a basic assumption) that the more banks become compliant, the more simple that exchange of data will become. I don't know of any standard date system, but that sounds like a hurdle that has been dealt with before this old cowpoke new what y2k was. After speaking with a few individuals from various cities in my bottom 10% state, I gather that the FDIC put the fear of the almighty dollar in all bank presidents and boards. My one stoplight town bank is to a similar level with the bank mentioned above - getting ready to test and coordinate with vendors.

Uncle: Is your e-mail address a true reference to a Poison lyric?

-- Slick (slick@hucheemama.com), October 22, 1998.

Sorry Slick

But it was done before they did it, and much better, I must say. By who? I'm not talking, you seem an intelligent sort, look it up.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 22, 1998.

I thought the bank's staement was straightforward enough. As others have pointed out, however, we are so interconnected that it could still be affected. And, unfortunately, I don't bank there - notr, I bet does IBM, or maybe your employer or...you get the picture.

I'm trying to figure out, Believer, if it is that you don't believe that Y2k presents much of a threat of disruption? If that is the case, I'm not sure what your motives are for being on this board. In case this hasn't proven self evident in other areas of your life, name calling and blasting people is not the most effective way to get others to see your point of view.

Thanks, Robert, for that post, and for everyone else who commented on it.

-- melissa (financed@forbin.com), October 22, 1998.

Slick

Might want to be sure you aren't talking about Great White, instead of the P.

-- Uncle Deedah (oncebitten@twiceshy.com), October 22, 1998.

"So What? If 20% of all the banks and other financial institutions go under, you are still talking Depression at best."

If all we get is a depression, I for one will be dancing in the soup line.

Rick

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), October 23, 1998.

Rick, I agree with you on the dancing in the soup line. I see us heading for a strong recession to correct the 8+ year sunshine market within which we have been living, without bringing y2k into the picture. If a long-term financial downturn is all that happens after everthing is said and done, then Yahoo.

Uncle, I must say I am not a musical historian. Quite the opposite, I would have to answer Yes to having actually owned 1 Poison product. However, I would never have to admit to owning a Great White anything.

Stray thought here: think of Pat Boone in his leather getup singing Once Bitten, Twice Shy.

-- Slick (slick@hucheemama.com), October 23, 1998.

<<<<
-- Dance partner (shh@aol.com), October 23, 1998.

<<< I am in the corner waiting for Rick to ask me to dance. I dont even like soup, i is in trouble.

-- dance partner (shh@aol.com), October 23, 1998.

Rick. Ditto. I'll stand in the bread line so we both get a bigger meal.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), October 28, 1998.