Sovereign Bank Offices to Be Open New Year's Eve and New Year's Day;...

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Yeah, but would YOU fly on Dec 31st?

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY

Sovereign Bank Offices to Be Open New Year's Eve and New Year's Day; Bank Confident in Y2K Preparation

PHILADELPHIA, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Bank announced that certain bank branches in each region Sovereign serves will be open for extended hours on December 31 and be open for business on January 1 to serve customers who want to access their accounts during the holiday. They also announced that management continues to move forward with confidence regarding Y2K readiness throughout bank operations. Sovereign also recently unveiled a customer awareness program about Y2K.

Select bank branches will remain open until 5 p.m. on Friday, December 31. The same branches will be open on Saturday, January 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sovereign will announce which specific branches will be open closer to the year's end.

Sovereign's Y2K program office, called Success 2000, invites customers to inquire about Y2K information through a toll free number: 1-888-880-8321. They have also prepared a five-minute informational video that will play continuously in all Sovereign offices. The video explains what ``Y2K'' means, outlines several guidelines for customers and explains that Sovereign is taking all reasonable steps to make the transition into the next century as smooth as possible.

``We've extended our hours during the holiday weekend for the convenience of our customers and to demonstrate our confidence in our Y2K transition,'' said Jay Sidhu, President and CEO of Sovereign Bank. ``We are preparing to make sure that we continue to successfully serve our customers in the new millennium. We're highly confident in the steps we've taken to prepare for Y2K.''

Apart from going to an open Sovereign Bank branch office, there are several other ways for Sovereign customers to access their accounts and check balances during the holiday weekend. All customers can access their money and check on balances through any one of Sovereign's 450 ATMs 24 hours a day/seven days a week. Sovereign's phone center, Sovereign Direct, will be open extended hours to handle customer calls on December 31 and January 1. Calls can be directed to 1-877-SOV-BANK. Also, customers can use telephone banking and NetBanking to check account activities and balances at any time on December 31 and January 1. Customers not yet registered for these services can sign up at any Sovereign Bank office.

Customers can also access additional information about Y2K through a direct link to the FDIC on Sovereign Bank's website, www.sovereignbank.com. Additional information about Sovereign's Y2K program office, Success 2000, is available on the Sovereign Bank website. Sovereign Bank is a proforma $23.4 billion financial institution with over 300 community banking offices operating in New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Northern Delaware.

This is a year 2000 readiness disclosure.

SOURCE: Sovereign Bank

-- Sista In 'Da Hood (Sista@Da.House), July 09, 1999

Answers

What a wonderful PR ploy! This should convince account holders that their money is safe...and they don't have to take it out of the bank. I'd expect that more banks will do this...especially those that are actually reasonably remediated or those that are not...

It could backfire, come January 1, if, say, the vault doesn't open, the teller computer system is down, or something else happens. Y2K related or not...

-- Mad Monk (madmonk@hawaiian.net), July 09, 1999.


Another press release but not as well done as the prior thread on Global One.

"They also announced that management continues to move forward with confidence regarding Y2K readiness throughout bank operations."

Forget compliance. Forget Ready. They are neither. Perhaps the next y2k word "confidence"

My money would beat a hasty retreat from this institution.

Sista, the banks are paying too much for your services.

-- Mike Lang (webflier@erols.com), July 09, 1999.


SPECIFIC. What better way to test. Open a couple and see what happens. Confident. Open them ALL! Give it up Kido!

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), July 10, 1999.

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