My Bank: "We're on the Home Stretch!"

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This is the actual heading of my bank's Y2K announcement mailed with my statement this month.

"We've reached the last key FFIEC* testing milestone for y2K and are proud to report that as of June 30, we've completed testing as well as substantially implementing our mission-critical computer systems and applications. And, we have confidence in our mission-critical service providers since they have assured us that their computer systems are y2K ready. But we won't be resting on our laurels yet. We plan to continue testing and monitoring systems throughout the remainder of 1999, as well as develop contengency plans.

*Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council. "

Looks to me like my bank missed the boat when they assured us with great fanfare this summer that the banking system was "ready". Unless the Fed. Reserve definition of "ready" is the same as my bank's.

So they have "completed testing", but they will "continue testing" anyway until the end.

They also have "substancially completed" the "implementation" of mission-critical systems. However much that is.

And they're very happy because their mission-critical service providers have "assured" them that they are "ready".

My DWGI husband was also very pleased with this announcement.

Bankers, politicians, lawyers and doctors are kings controlling this earth because they've been endowed with the ability to write what looks like english but is really a language all to their own.

*sigh*

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), August 31, 1999

Answers

And "June 30" sounds so much more far away than "July 1", just like $9.99 is well below 10 bucks.

-- Chris (%$^&^@pond.com), August 31, 1999.

I thought all the banks were finished.....

Honestly, don't condemn ANYBODY for "continuing to test", nor should you condemn (criticize) any gorup for announcing an "oops, we found a bug during later testing ...."

The bug would have been there regardless of "further testing" or not - continued testing only found it NOW, whne things are easier to fix, rather than after the rollover, when resolution will likely be more difficult....

-- Robert A. Cook, PE (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), August 31, 1999.


Well, they ARE right about ONE THING....

WE'RE IN THE 'HOME STRETCH'

122 days remain. 87 "Working days".

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), August 31, 1999.


A year ago, our mortgage was purchased by yet another bank, Commercial Federal. Instead of issuing us a new coupon book with their name on the coupons, this bank utilized good old fashioned 'statements', much like a statement from anywhere else. It showed the account activity for the previous month, ie., amount received, amount applied to principle, amount applied to interest, escrow, amount remaining on the loan, etc. We had never had this feature with our previous mortgage banks, and we loved it because it was much more motivating to send extra to go towards the principle when we could 'see' it going down every month. The statement had a portion to tear off and send in with your payment every month.

Last month (August), we received our statement as we normally do. The next day, we received a packet of 'coupons' that were printed with a dot matrix printer, starting with the September 1, 1999 payment and going through March 1, 2000. At the top of the coupons, it says "Temporary Payment Coupons". We both thought it was a little odd.

I'm lucky in that there is a branch of this bank a mile or so from our house. I went in today to make our house payment and brought both my 'regular statement' with the September 1st tear off portion AND the new "Temporary payment coupon". I asked the person at the counter which one I should use; she was clueless, as were the others in the branch. I asked her if these 'temporary' coupons were to head off any Y2k problems and she said, "I don't know, but it looks like it". No one else in the bank knew, either, but several of them remarked that it had taken them quite a while to get set up on the system that generated the individual statements each month and they didn't seem to be happy with another change in procedure. I asked them if we would stop getting a monthly statement, and no one knew. It always makes me antsy when the right hand knows not what the left hand is doing.

Of course, their lobby is filled with happy happy joy joy blatherings about their 'readiness'.

-- Wilferd (WilferdW@aol.com), August 31, 1999.


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