Question for programmers in Banking

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

Are there any programmers out there working on y2k remediation projects within banking (or associated financial organisations) who are prepared to give this forum the facts on REAL progress made (or otherwise). This information could pertain to their own organisation and/or the industry as a whole.

NB I am not prepared to rely on statements from the media, government or official bulletins from management.

-- dick of the dale (rdale@coyet.com), June 23, 1999

Answers

I work for a large financial services and software products firm.

Some Y2k things might get ugly, but not forever, nor will the whole system crash. Too many people don't want to give up their cushy jobs.

And because you don't want to rely on official bulletins and such, I can not tell you my firm nor point you to any official public information. But I can tell you the information my firm releases is completely true to the best of our knowledge.

The problem is even though we have tested very thouroghly, if there is a rare or funky condition that causes failure, we are afraid of the lawsuits. Even though the Y2k disclosure thing was passed, we are still wary of being sued. So we don't say too much, because what we say might be held against us.

Our clients are very comfortable with us. And I bank with one of them, and I am fine with their efforts.

Y2k Readiness and Disclosure

-- JAW (clueless@pollyanna.com), June 23, 1999.


The facts -

I am a vet of the IT industry for close to 30 years now and am working currently in the financial services end of the industry.

The Banking and Financial Services end of the industry has been working, in many cases, since the early 70's on the Y2K effort since we first started amortizing 30 year loans back then.

As JAW said in his msg, the industry is very litigation concious and has worked diligently to minimize any impact of date processing issues.

As an industry consultant, I too cannot name names as I am constantly under a non-disclosure agreement which would land me on the street or in court if I divulge the names of the organizations I currently work for or have worked for in the past.

So - given that you don't want to accept "official publications" or statements - you will either have to take our word for it or wait and see.

Yours in COBOL... Dino!

-- (COBOL_Dinosaur@yahoo.com), June 23, 1999.


Interesting our experts haven't flooded this posting. I wonder where they are.....

-- JAW (clueless@pollyana.com), June 24, 1999.

JAW thanks for the answer, see my posting re article in the London Times today, looks like a major UK "bank" or "pension company" is in serious trouble, plus seven other medium impact financial firms according the the Financial Services Authority

Action 2000, the govt watchdog, wants to name the company, see the bank run start very soon

-- dick of the dale (rdale@coynet.com), June 26, 1999.


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