Mr. Patrikis discusses the implications of the Year 2000 computer problem for international banking and finance Statement by the First Vice-President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Mr. Ernest T. Patrikis, before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the US House of Representatives on 23/6/98. I am pleased to appear before the Committee today to discuss the implications of the Year 2000 computer problem for international banking and finance. I am appearing in my capacity as Chairman of the Joint Year 2000 Council, which is sponsored jointly by the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision, the G-10 central bank governors’ Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems, the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (collectively referred to as the “Sponsoring Organizations”). The international financial community has much work to do to prepare itself for the challenges posed by the Year 2000 (“Y2K”) problem. While much good work is being done and progress in many areas is evident, more needs doing. The Sponsoring Organizations believe that mutual cooperation and information sharing can play a key role in helping individual market participants carry out these preparations and limit the scope of Y2K-related disruptions. Our major concern, of course, will be the possible impact of the Y2K problem on the functioning of the international financial system as a whole.
Each of us will help in coordinating regional Y2K forums or conferences and will publicly promote the goals of the Joint Year 2000 Council in speeches and on conference programs. The Joint Year 2000 Council will also maintain extensive world-wide-web pages that can be accessed freely over the Internet.3 These pages are being maintained through the support the Council has received from the Bank for International Settlements, in particular from the General Manager, Andrew Crockett. These web pages will maintain current information on the activities of the Joint Year 2000 Council. The most extensive aspect of the Council’s web site will be a series of country pages, one for each country in the world. For each country, the page will contain contact information for government entities (including national coordinators), financial industry supervisors and regulators (including central banks, banking supervisors, insurance supervisors, and securities regulators), financial industry associations, payment, settlement and trading systems, chambers of commerce, and major utility associations or supervisors. For each of these organizations, a name, address, phone number, fax number, electronic mail and web site address will be provided. Other relevant information on an organization’s Y2K preparations may also be included, for example, whether it has a dedicated Y2K contact or has taken specific action with respect to the Y2K problem. The motivation for developing these country pages is to increase awareness of the work that is being done to address the Y2K problem and to enable market participants to easily find out more information about the state of preparations worldwide.