Friday, December 31, 1999 MILLENNIUM COUNTDOWN

Banks rushed as public panics over circular

BANGLADESH by ARSHAD MAHMUD in Dhaka

http://www.scmp.com/News/World/Article/FullText_asp_ArticleID-19991231032203657.asp -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tens of thousands of panicked customers yesterday thronged banks in cities across the country to collect account statements on the last transaction day before the new year. The panic was triggered by a Central Bank circular issued four days ago asking depositors to collect printed statements of their accounts by December 30 as a precaution to avoid any disaster that might befall the banking sector as a result of the Y2K computer problem.

The bank authority had earlier declared that they had made the banking sector Y2K-compliant.

The authority has instructed all banks to work today, a holiday in Muslim Bangladesh, to ensure all statements are ready.

Similar panic has also gripped the national airline which will ground all planes for eight hours, as well as the power and telecommunication sectors.

The widespread fear comes despite the fact the National Task Force on Y2K has certified there will be no major disruption to operations.

"I think the panic is somewhat exaggerated," said Aftabul Islam, former president of the Bangladesh Computer Society.

"Thank God, we're in an advantageous position compared to the developed countries, because the penetration of computers in Bangladesh is very insignificant."

Fewer than three per cent of bank branches are fully computerised and nearly 80 per cent of the 130 million population has no access to electricity.

-- Hokie (Hokie_@hotmail.com), December 31, 1999

Answers

I don't think that this qualifies for what most people would consider a "bank run", because the implicit assumption is that people want to get all their money out in CASH. The bank customers in Bangladesh are asking for documents that the bank has plenty of, and can easily give to each and every customer.

Now, if they had wanted CASH, that would have been a different story....

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.cum), December 31, 1999.

Hokie, Thou art an ass. Trying to stir panic with your bogus headline. Get a life. A rush on printed bank statments is not a bank run.

P.S. I hope Virginia Tech gets hammered as badly as UVa did.

-- nobody (nobody@nowhere.com), December 31, 1999.

I third the motion. Please post an apology or find somewhere else to dwell.

-- PNG (png@gol.com), December 31, 1999.