< 99% of 3,900 Securities Firms Will Be Compliant on December 31, Says SEC
washingtonpost.com.
I keep looking for a report, "Brokerage Firm Reports 100% Y2K Compliance, Fully Tested." I have not seen this yet.
No problem, because 99% of all U.S. brokerage houses will be compliant in December. None may be now, but they are working on it. Really hard.
Meanwhile, the Securities & Exchange Commission says it will warn brokerage houses on August 31 that it requires them to be compliant no later than November 15, and it will close them if they are not compliant on December 1. Well, it can't actually close them, but it will go to court to close them.
What ever happened to the industry's interoperability testing? Oh, well: they can do it over Christmas if they really want to.
And what about brokerage houses outside the U.S.? Don't ask.
This is an AP story in the WASHINGTON POST (July 27).
Federal securities regulators will go to court starting Dec. 1 to shut down brokerage firms that are not ready for the Year 2000, under new rules adopted today.
The Securities and Exchange Commission voted, 5-0, to approve the rules. They set a target date of Aug. 31 for brokerage firms to complete their Year 2000 compliance efforts but allow additional time for unprepared firms to show that they will be ready no later than Nov. 15.
''Any firm that cannot achieve Y2K compliance in a timely fashion will be required to cease doing business by Dec. 1,'' SEC Chairman Arthur Levitt said before the vote. . . .
Richard Walker, the agency's enforcement director, said the regulators would go into federal courts starting Dec. 1 seeking injunctions forcing the unprepared brokerage firms to cease operations and notify their customers. . . .
The SEC estimates that only 1 percent or so of the 3,900 brokerage firms covered by the new rules will be unprepared for the millennial date change. . . .
The new rules also apply to transfer agents that are not banks. Transfer agents are responsible for keeping records of shareholders of corporations and for issuing or canceling stock certificates when shares are bought and sold. . .
|
