All banks claim Y2K compliance; no public transactions on January 1, 2000.
India Today
Mumbai, December 22: Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has said that all 103 commercial banks and their non-banking subsidiaries, scheduled and major urban co-operative banks have reported full year 2000 (Y2K) readiness.
RBI has promised the core staff and vendor support in banks round the clock from December 27 onwards till smooth rollover to year 2000 was complete. The apex bank has, however, declared that banks would observe holiday for public transactions on January 1, 2000.
RBI, in a statement, stated that its computer systems, which had been tested for Y2K readiness by independent third parties, including those having interface with banks and financial institutions, were already Y2K compliant.
"Contingency plans, duly tested in simulated environment, have been put in place," the statement said, adding that the banks have adequate cash stocks and could further draw cash from the currency chest bank or RBI issue offices.
As a measure of abundant precaution, banks have been advised to maintain hard copies of all customers' accounts right from December 1 and account holders could obtain the statement of accounts before January 1, 2000 from the branches of the banks at any time, it said.
"Y2K compliant state-of-the-art MICR cheque processing systems at Mumbai, Calcutta, New Delhi and Chennai have gone live during July October 1999 and cross border connectivity of banks through 'Swift' has also been made compliant," according to the central bank. |
