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Technology Stocks : Discuss Year 2000 Issues -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Christine Traut who wrote (4762)	3/18/1999 9:52:00 AM
From: flatsville	Respond to of 9818

From our man in South African Rodney Victor (straight off South African Press Association wire--no url) ---------------------------------------------------------- U.K. Firms Not On Course For Yr 2000 Could Face FSA Action LONDON (Dow Jones)‹A number of leading financial groups in the U.K. are in danger of not achieving year 2000 compliance and could face regulatory action, although the majority of companies are on course to prepare their systems for the millennium, according to a report by the Financial Services Authority, presented at a London conference. For companies "where problems could have a big effect on retail customers or the markets, our assessment shows around 58% are on track for the year 2000 compliance, 35% are behind but likely to get on track and less than 8% pose a serious risk," said Michael Foot, managing director of financial supervision at the FSA. Firms that could have a high or medium impact, like clearing banks, big insurance companies and fund managers, have been challenged by the FSA to prove its assessment wrong or produce a convincing way out of their problems. Currently 12 leading financial groups with potentially high impact - "household names" as Foot put it - are a serious risk. If firms are seen not to comply, the FSA will as a last resort "take action to restrict a firm¹s business or in extreme cases remove its authorisation altogether," Foot said. Official regulation action could be for example "you have to pull out of x market for the last three months of the year," he added. Another regulatory measure could be to recommend a firm be put up for sale, Foot said. But the FSA would prefer not to take action. "We are still hopeful we don¹t have to," Foot said, and with more than nine months to go before the millennium, the conditions to justify such measures haven¹t yet manifested themselves, he added. (END) Dow Jones Newswires 17-03-99 1310GMT(AP-DJ- -03-17-99 1310GMT)