To: John D. McClure who wrote (3457 ) 1/28/1999 2:46:00 PM From: C.K. Houston Respond to
Last week in Manhattan, an important conference took place: "Year 2000 Systemic Risk in Financial Institutions and Markets: Contingency Plans and Risk Management" PARTICIPANTS: High level Y2K remediators and top managers from banking, securities, and insurance industries. Some highlights: STILL in the design stage. :HIGHLIGHTS FROM SOME SPEAKERS ... Dennis Grabow of the Millennium Investment Group reminded the audience that 19% of our Gross Domestic Product is based on foreign trade ... Many companies, such as Intel , state that they don't know what will happen to their foreign factories because of Y2K infrastructure failures. There are over 70,000 manufacturing plants employing 100 or more persons in the US and over 1.1 million factories worldwide. Irene Dec of Prudential urged the attendees to "Be prepared because most of the world isn't." Contingency planning must be done parallel to remediation and must include stockpiling supplies. Richard Lindsey of the SEC said that there is not a lot they can do to encourage foreign firms to act, but that he anticipates only a few isolated glitches in the US which will be dealt with effectively. Their prime objective is to prevent the erosion of consumer confidence. "There is no reason for investors to panic."Jim Devlin of Citicorp projected that problems will peak in the first and second quarters of 2000. The first global payments test will be in June 1999. George Juncker of the NY Federal Reserve said that industry-wide tests must be carefully conceived and executed as they have the potential for being either PR success stories or disasters. Doug Jeffries of S.W.I.F.T. , which provides over 6000 institutions in 174 countries a secure network over which financial information is exchanged and is the lifeblood of securities and cash movements around the world, is very concerned about internationalDan Lynch of JP Morgan spoke of "scenario planning" and risk analysis of selected securities. Tom Warenkiewicz of Chase Manhattan said, "What we thought we knew a year ago is a lot different today." Liz McInerny of Fidelity Investments said they are adding Y2K criteria to examine investments. FROM VICTOR POLIER (Author of article): If the financial services industry is this deep in contingency planning for Y2K, shouldn't individuals and communities at every level be doing the same? y2ktimebomb.com WORLD BANKING LINK:Urges contingency planning for inevitable disruptionsw usia.gov TESTIMONY: NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICER (LARRY GERSHWIN): house.gov Most of you who follow this thread already know where I stand.
