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To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (8052)	3/4/1998 11:30:00 AM
From: Broken_Clock	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 116763

49r- Why March 25th? PK

To: IngotWeTrust who wrote (8052)	3/6/1998 9:02:00 AM
From: Richnorth	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116763

Updated 3:17 PM ET March 5, 1998 EMU, 2000 Bug Cannot Be Tackled Together-UK Banks LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's banks will not be able to prepare for a switch to a single European currency at the same time as they work to prevent a rash of damaging computer crashes on January 1, 2000, the British Bankers' Association said. "In terms of the U.K., you could not do the two together," director-general Tim Sweeney told an inquiry by parliament's science and technology committee on the so-called millennium bug problem. Sweeney said the banks had already appealed to the government to avoid legislation or regulations which would require a heavy diversion of information technology staff away from dealing with the bug. "If we have to divert resources...we are in trouble," he said. Many computers are in danger of going down as the new millennium dawns because they recognize year dates only by the last two digits and will be confused by a year which does not begin with the digits 19. Sweeney said the cost to Britain's banks of tackling this problem would be $1.65 billion. He said he was confident that new "millennium compliant" computers would be installed in the banks in time. If action was not taken, most British salaries and pensions would go unpaid, standing order payments for regular services would lapse, and businesses would go bust because payments were not received, the association said in earlier written evidence to the committee. The British government has already said it does not plan a referendum on possible membership of the single currency until after the next general election, which could be two and a half years into the new millennium. Sweeney was asked whether, if British banks could not prepare for the single currency at the same time as solving the millennium bug problem, banks in the 11 EU states which plan to start adopting the Euro currency from January 1 next year would be able to do so. He said his association had been told that they could as they had a longer planning time for the Euro than his members would have if Britain suddenly decided to join the "first wave" of membership. "That may be so. I don't know the answer to that," he said.