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Technology Stocks : Y2K (Year 2000): Is Wall Street & Banking Vulnerable? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (17)	5/28/1999 2:01:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Respond to of 158

Nasdaq Extends Trading Hours - Exchange's Move Has Wide Implications N E W Y O R K, May 27 — Come autumn, investors could be buying and selling shares of Microsoft Corp. and 99 other companies on the Nasdaq Stock Market while watching Ally McBeal. The National Association of Securities Dealers, which governs Nasdaq, today approved a plan to extend trading hours from the current 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Eastern time schedule. A second session of the day would likely start at 5:30 p.m. and end at 9 p.m. or 10 p.m. The changes are expected to take effect around September,after a review by the Securities and Exchange Commission and discussions with industry leaders. “This business of extended hours is a serious market-quality question, and it needs to be addressed with a great deal of seriousness,” said Frank Zarb, chairman and chief executive of the National Association of Securities Dealers. The SEC has been urging restraint, proposing a delay until next year so that the securities industry would not be extending trading hours at the same time it is confronting the Year 2000 computer bug and preparing to shift from reporting stock prices in fractions to the use of decimals. But Zarb said Nasdaq is still sticking with its plans for starting night trading around September. “It is clear the marketplace needs this kind of innovation, and we are going to provide the leadership to get us from here to there,” Zarb said... abcnews.go.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here's a guy in a VERY nice suit who has been told NOT to take this unnecessary risk right now (just delay it a few months), because the SEC wants to ensure that the other major "changes" (like, oh, Y2K) are managed well, and he's going to just forge ahead. Tell me again how smart all those senior execs are, and how they're not going to override the recommendations of their project teams, subject matter experts, and other advisors. "Against Stupidity, the very gods Themselves contend in vain." --- Schiller, The Maid of Orleans -- Mac (sneak@lurk.hid), May 28, 1999 DISCUSSION: greenspun.com

To: C.K. Houston who wrote (17)	5/28/1999 2:19:00 PM
From: C.K. Houston	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 158

Municipal bonds, SEC, anti-fraud & Y2K ... CITIES REQUIRED TO PRESENT Y2K REPORT CARDS 05/20/99 - American City & County -BY Margaret Simmons Disclosure requirements instituted by the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Governmental Accounting Standards Board (GASB), as well as the audit issues raised by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA), have created a disclosure crisis for local government finance officials. Indeed, the Y2K problem is changing the way in which government accountants and auditors are required to report the financial activities of their particular entities. A Y2K meltdown could wreak havoc on many government operations outside of information technology systems. For example, local governments could feel the effects in everything from transportation systems to elevators-anything that might contain date recognition features that could cause machinery to cease working when it can no longer properly interpret dates. GASB's technical bulletin Released in October 1998, GASB Technical Bulletin 93-1, "Disclosures about Year 2000 Issues," requires specific disclosures in financial statements dated after Oct. 31, 1998. Financial statements for periods ending after Dec. 31, 1999, do not have to meet the requirement unless systems and other equipment are not Year 2000 compliant as of the report's balance sheet date. The Technical Bulletin requires the government to describe any pertinent Y2K issues and any significant resources committed to make critical computer systems and equipment Year 2000 compliant. It also re-quires that the government declare the phase or stage it is in regarding its solution to the Y2K problem ... Securities and Exchange Commission releases The SEC's Interpretive Releases Nos. 33-7558 and 34-40277, "Disclosure of Year 2000 Issues" and "Consequences by Public Companies, Investment Advisors, Investment Companies and Municipal Securities Issuers" require issuers of securities to disclose Year 2000 issues. They cover government issuers, as well as public companies, investment advisors and investment companies that are issuing securities. Congress exempted municipal securities offerings from the registration requirements and civil liability provisions of the Securities Act of 1933. It also exempted them from a mandated system of periodic reporting under the SEC Act of 1934. However, it did not exempt those securities from the antifraud provision of those acts. And that is where the Y2K disclosures come into play. The antifraud provisions prohibit misleading statements in the offering, purchasing or selling of municipal securities. In addition, in recent years, the antifraud provisions as to municipal securities issues have been interpreted with increasing broadness. Basically, the provisions require all governments that issue securities to consider Year 2000 issues in preparing all disclosure documents, whether official statements, disclosure covenants that provide for continuing disclosure, or any other information that is reasonably expected to reach investors and the trading markets ... Information on disclosure requirements can be found at gfoa.org; at aicpa.org; or at gasb.org. Full article can be found here: greenspun.com Cheryl