US Banks Beating Y2K Bug But Some Need Backup-FDIC

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Does anybody know what the ranking method the FDIC is using?

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/tc/story.html?s=v/nm/19990603/tc/banking_yk_1.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Only a few U.S. banks are lagging in their Year 2000 preparations, but those that are need to keep accessible backup copies of key customer data, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation said Thursday.

Just 205 of the 10,400 banks insured by the FDIC are now rated less than satisfactory in regard to their Y2K compliance, down from 357 at the end of March, the agency said.

The Year 2000, or Y2K, problem arises because many older computers record dates using only the last two digits of the year. If left uncorrected, such systems could treat the year 2000 as the year 1900, generating errors or systems crashes.

``Banking regulators have been working with financial institutions for two years to prepare for the century date change,'' FDIC Chairwoman Donna Tanoue said in a statement. ``As a result we expect virtually all financial institutions to be prepared for the transition.''

Nonetheless, the agency said that ``out of an overabundance of caution,'' it wanted all institutions that did not achieve a satisfactory Y2K rating by July 31 to keep computer copies of key deposit and loan information in a standardized format.

Banks routinely keep backup copies of the data stored in their computer systems but often record different information and in different ways. The FDIC interim rule, which would come into effect after a 30-day comment period, sets out what information should be backed up and how it should be stored.

``We want to at least have core information on hand packaged in a way that we can use, so that if we need to get customers their money right away we can do it,'' an FDIC spokesman said.

The information would include items like account status, branch, account and tax identification numbers, customer names and addresses, account balances and accrued interest, he said.

The additional measures would not be particularly burdensome or expensive for the small number of banks that might be affected, the spokesman said. The FDIC estimates the cost of compliance at around $17,500 per bank.

-- y2k dave (xsdaa111@hotmail.com), June 04, 1999

Answers

98% of the banks are NOT compliant as of this date. Yep, they are beating the bug.

-- FLAME AWAY (BLehman202@aol.com), June 04, 1999.

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