Couldn't find the Yourdon piece from last night, but here's an interesting piece from the night before. This would make two days running with y2k stories on NBR?
quote.com
>>>>>How SIA Is Preparing For Y2K
SUSIE GHARIB: There are only 569 more days left before the start of the year 2000 and
many companies are worried that might not be enough time to fix the Year 2000 computer
glitch. But the securities industry is about to take a big step toward making sure that its systems
will be ready. Scott Gurvey reports.
SCOTT GURVEY, NIGHTLY BUSINESS REPORT, CORRESPONDENT: Monday, July
13, will dawn as a normal day for most of the nation's stock markets. But for a handful of
usually back room experts and their computers, it will seem as if it is already December 29,
1999. For on that day, the securities industry will conduct its first test to see if the complex
systems that make the trading of stocks, options and bonds happen, are ready for the year 2000.
Twenty-nine of the industry's biggest brokers, the exchanges, and clearing firms will participate.
Four-hundred member firms will join the test next year. The Securities Industry Association
has organized this cooperative effort which began in 1995. The industry expects to spend $5
billion making its systems, Year 2000 complaint.
DONALD KITTELL, EXEC. V.P., SECURITIES INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION: For the first
18 months or so, this project had gotten more and more complicated. We touch something and
we just expand out into something bigger. We've actually reached the point, the crossover line, I
think. We're now, we're getting more confident every day.
GURVEY: There are, however, concerns that foreign systems, particularly in emerging markets,
may have problems. Fed Chairman Greenspan noted those in congressional testimony today.
ALAN GREENSPAN, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE BOARD: As you imply, even
where in the United States to fully expurgate our computer systems of these obsolete programs,
we still have a very substantial interaction with the rest of the world.
GURVEY: Still, the industry does believe that America's financial systems will be ready. Arthur
Thomas of Merrill Lynch (NYSE:MER) shares the SIA's Year 2000 Steering Committee.
ARTHUR THOMAS, SR. V.P., MERRILL LYNCH: And we will, you know, safely and
soundly cross the millennium, you know, changeover and protect the U.S. investment public.
No one can guarantee you that there won't, will not be glitches, there will not be problems. Our
job is to make those as inconsequential as possible.
GURVEY: The Securities & Exchange Commission, it expected to require that firms begin
reporting on their Year 2000 progress later this year. Scott Gurvey, NIGHTLY BUSINESS
REPORT, New York. |
