Banking and Money and Y2K

greenspun.com : LUSENET : TimeBomb 2000 (Y2000) : One Thread

A perpetual topic/question is "what's gonna happen to our money?"

Answers to many of your questions about money, credit, banking, fractional reserve banking, etc., in relation to Y2K are in an online "book" in pdf format (can read online or download and read offline, with Acrobat Reader).

http://www.logoplex.com/resources/ameagle/congame.pdf

BTW, since Acrobat Reader only reads pdf files, and the files themselves are not executables or batch files -- WITH NO MACROS (like Microsucks Word has) -- I think they are safe (as compared to dowloading other types of files, including Microsucks Word, Excel, etc.) http://www.logoplex.com/resources/ameagle/congame.pdf

-- A (A@AisA.com), July 10, 1999

Answers

P.S. I've never heard anything bad about Adobe Acrobat Readers with pdf whereas I've heard a lot about Microsucks Word problems. I haven't had any trouble with pdf. The reason I mention this is that a lot of people aren't familiar with pdf. You can download the reader free from Adobe at

http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

Now -- back to money and banking -- you've been screwed; you're being screwed. If you have a morbid curiosity re how they're reaming you, and what with, read that article.

-- A (A@AisA.com), July 10, 1999.


A,

Jennifer McNeill of Cipher Systems has answered some banking questions on another discussion board; you may find some of her suggestions interesting:

"One area that I am always asked about is the banking problems. As a consultant to the Automobile Business on Y2K, our small business owners have a great exposure to automatic withdrawls from their checking accounts (personal and professional). Since billing cycles are an area of concern, if their bank is sent a bill for automatic withdrawl that is incorrect, they could have every single penny withdrawn (if the bill is large enough) and no one will look at it because it is automated.

Your thoughts?" (poster Paul)

"This is an area that many people have ignored. It is very important, in the high risk areas, to assume the worst. In other words, find alternative plans for transfering funds during that time. One of my customers who is a Government organization and provides cheques to clients, has decided to print and send post-dated cheques out for approximately 3 months ahead of time, even though they are supposed to be sent through automatic transfer.

Their concern is not only that there may be transmission problems, but that their balance would be incorrect and could be hard to find.

Cash flow is very important to businesses (especially small business) since there may be some problems, glitches, etc. that cause their customers to be unable to send payments to them as they do normally. They should plan for this as a potential problem and ensure that their line of credit is available (even potentially increased) and that they have cash available (preferably in the bank).

I do believe that the banks will correct problems as quickly as possible and have contingency plans in place for potential problems that may occur; however, it is important for a company to assume responsibility for their risks.

Jennifer McNeill"

"Posted: Jennifer McNeill Date: July 9 1999 at 6:59 PM "...Some recent surveys show that many people are planning to take some amount of cash out of the bank which could put a strain on banks and ATMs. The good news is that the (U.S.) Federal Reserve has printed extra cash in the event that there are those type of problems. Banks understand that that potential is very real. That does not help with other problems that may occur because of the problems that countries outside of North America may have.

It is important to note that all of the Year 2000 problems that occur will not happen right at the stroke of midnight. Many of the problems will be caused because of extra stress on certain systems, or a number of small problems that compound into a really big problem.

...we can plan for potential problems and understand what we would do if that problem caused other problems, i.e., employees not showing up for work, etc.

I recommend that your company set up procedures and policies to deal with potential human resource problems. This is one of the areas overlooked by many big companies. You should have pre-determined and communicated to every employee what will happen to their positions if they do not show up for work, or, perhaps, they get stuck in a country that has Y2K problems and they cannot get home.

One more note...it is imperative to perform contingency planning continually over the next 12-15 months. Many companies who are not prepared (your suppliers, partners, or customers perhaps) could potentially have economic problems as late as fall of next year (since it sometimes takes a bit of time for companies to run out of alternatives and perhaps go out of business). Many problems will continue to occur through next year.

I also am sick of the problem. I started speaking on the problem in 1995 and our company did the first Y2K conversion for a client in 1993. You can imagine how frustrating it gets trying to get companies and management to take it seriously. -- Cipher Systems Ltd. http://www.ciphersys.com"

______________________

Jennifer McNeill testified to Industry Canada last fall, indicating that many of the Calgary companies she works for *will not* be ready in time. She also said that by the time hospitals realize they have to order new equipment the producers of that equipment will be backlogged and the items ordered simply will not be available.

-- Rachel Gibson (rgibson@hotmail.com), July 10, 1999.


Any of you with bank accounts with automatic (paycheck) deposit and automatic payments are zits ready to be picked.

I heard on an "establishment" personal finance program that when you sign up for automatic deposit (say your paycheck from your employer), you sign (in the fine print) an authorization for the employer to tap your whole account in case of dispute (or just plain nastiness or larceny). Check out what you signed, you could have nothing to withdraw if your employer decides he's paid you too much, or paid you in error. He could figure he needs your account balance in six months more than you do.

-- A (A@AisA.com), July 10, 1999.


Item 1 :

Bank runs, here in the US and ELSEWHERE.

(a) The rest of the world does exist and people will seek to cash in their respective currencies for US dollars at the whatever rate of exchange as soon as TSHTF simply because the US dollar is the world's store of value currency. Think Latin America, Asia, etc.

(b) Check out the following site and let me know if these proven facts will not affect you

"www.y2knewswire.com/cashcomputer.asp"

Item 2:

What's this funny idea of talking about individual banks? Bank such and such will be compliant, bank so and so is "ready" (whatever that means, maybe 'ready to crash'?). The minute your money is in ANY bank you are trusting that the INTERNATIONAL banking system is Y2K compliant. That's why BankBoston has warned that despite the fact that they are the world leaders in Y2K remediation they cannot contain serious risks and uncertainties because of the above. The International Settlements Bank (Basle) the bank of the central banks of the world has stated the same idea unequivocally.

-- George (jvilches@sminter.com.ar), July 10, 1999.


Italics off...

-- Anonymous99 (Anonymous99@Anonymous99.xxx), July 10, 1999.


Italianos .......begone?

-- Charles R. (chuck_roast@trans.net), July 10, 1999.

Thanks for the post, a.

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), July 10, 1999.

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