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To: John Miz who wrote (9083)	1/19/1998 2:06:00 PM
From: John Arnett	Respond to of 31646

John, Article in NY Times, Business section...."An Extra Day to Fine-Tune 1,000 Years" Article goes on to say Wall St. has been planning updates for Y2K since 1995 and with less than 2 years to go is about to ask for extra time-one day's worth. The Securities Industry Association (the main trade group) is preparing to recommend that markets be closed on Friday, Dec. 31, 1999. "The Securities industry is spending $6 billion to reprogram every computer, from those on the floor of the NYSE to those that print investors' mutual fund statements. Much of the initial work is supposed to be done this year so that the results can be tested and, if necessary, fixed next year." "One of the biggest fears is that different firms and exchanges will adjust their date processing in different ways. In that case, two computers that each have been fixed might nonetheless crash when they are connected to each other. Because the world's markets have more than 500 trading and funds-transfer networks, this is a real fear." Here's how they plan to test interaction: On a series of four Saturdays, starting March 6, 1999, all stock market participants will execute a series of test trades to shake out any bugs. The first day will simulate Dec. 29, 1999, followed by December 30 and 31,1999 the next two Saturdays. The final Saturday will be like the crucial first day of trading in 2000:Monday, Jan.3. Hope Woodhouse, a Salomon managing Director presented her analysis of what might happen to the Government bond market if computer systems malfunctioned. If a single bond dealer's computers went out, as has happened for other reasons from time to time, it would initially be manageable, she said. The dealer would receive bonds from trades made the previous day, but could not sell any more. This would bloat the inventory, requiring a big overnight bank loan to pay for what it had bought. "If this happens for one or two days, it's not a huge problem; if it goes beyond that, you are basically out of business." The problems would be worse if one of the two main banks that serve Government bond dealers, the Bank of NY and Chase ran into problems. If either could not operate for a day, it would probably have to borrow as much as $100 billion from the Federal Reserve to balance its books. As for the Fed, which is at the center of all trading and money transfer, the stakes are as high as they can be. "If the Fed isn't operating, nothing can happen. It would be a disaster that would impact all global liquidity". Even if the worst is unlikely to occur, the securities industry is pushing for a Dec.31, 1999 trading holiday as an extra ounce of prevention. However, the banks worry that closing on that Friday would make them extra busy the preceding Thursday and on the crucial following Monday. "We think banks are going to ready for the year 2000" said spokesperson for American Bankers Assoc. William McDonough, president of the NY Federal Reserve Bank (the greatest underquote of all times) said. "we need to move on it soon or not at all". ...Not at all...this guy is running the biggest Fed district in the country and says this.... Does anyone know if TOPRO's products are geared at all toward the financial markets or only to factory floors?