-Caveat Lector-
On Thu, 16 Dec 1999, Edward Britton wrote:
>>There is no 'perhaps' about it...banks are nothing if not redundant in
>>their recordkeeping, and are obsessive over keeping paper records...
>
>Let's try this another, more "easy-to-understand" way. Please explain how
>banks and other financial institutiona act to ENSURE the adequate keeping
>of individual customer records. Have the banks initiated any plan to ENSURE
>that funds from individual depositers are protected in the same manner as
>those representing the bank's revenue?
Let me give you a clue...
Individual depositors ARE the source of banks' revenue....
And banks have had extensive 'disaster recovery' plans for years,
covering the range of relatively minor disasters (such as burst plumbing
in their main branch wiping out their computer system) up to a major
nuclear holocaust...
Y2K is just an additional 'disaster' which they've drawn contingency
plans for, with the hope of never having to utilize it. But rest assured
that if banks can restore their records in the event of a direct nuclear
hit, the worst case scenario of Y2K is a cakewalk...
The thing banks fear most is a run on the bank, and the last thing they
want is people foolishly panicing, which is what would happen if on some
farout chance ATMs as a whole don't work on Monday the 3rd, and branches
get swamped with customers who want to withdraw funds but can't because
(as you envision it) the bank has no idea if the person is even a
customer, let alone how much they have on hand...
No, what banks routinely do (SOP, nothing to do with Y2K) is print paper
registers of customers and their balances....
Since you claim you don't have a bank account, I guess you've never
experienced going to a bank and being told "We're sorry, our computers
are down..."
It happens all the time, nothing to do with Y2K...which is why branches
get the paper registers, so they can keep operating during the computer
down time...
>>There's no 'hope' involved, a full system backup on December 31st has
>>been SOP for financial institutions for decades,
>
>Isn't this just wonderful! Now, how about the computer programs which
>process and interpret these vast spools of information? Will they be usable
>after the first of the year?
Most of them have been compliant for years, because a good portion of
programs deal with calculations in the future: mortgages, loans,
longterm investment instruments. Where banks are possibly vulnerable is
in making sure that all the PCs at all the branches are Y2K-compliant
(the bank's mainframe may be operating perfectly, but to no avail if a
branch has PCs that can't work) and in programs dealing with mostly
internal processes...payroll, accounts payable and receivables....
But I don't know of any bank that hasn't tested the equipment at all
their branches...perhaps there may be sporadic cases of individual PCs at
branches not working, but there would still be other PCs at the branch
working...
(Again, I'm stating a 'worse case' scenario, which I personally feel
won't occur)
Banks have been specifically working on the Y2K issue for the past couple
of years...with the priority on the software that effects their
day-to-day operation, which means that which effects their customers,
including individual depositors...
>>You are only one of dozens of Chicken Littles predicting the sky will
>>fall.
>
>I guess it all depends on the expert to which we listen. I have two friends
>who work as computer programmers, one of whom is a systems analyst for the
>US courts (being profficient in PERL, COBOL, C++, et. al) and both have
>purchased emergency provisions and have made plans to be well away from
>major metros around the end of the year. What do you know that they don't?
The same thing as all the coworkers of your supposed friends who are NOT
playing the Chicken Little game, and in fact laugh at the 'sky is
falling' panic...
>>..I'm referring to people following the advice you all give, if they
>>do they will bring about the very thing you fear...
>
>Please elaborate on your qualifications in order to render credence to this
>claim. Are you a sociologist or an economist?
Let's see....you want people to withdraw all their funds from banks in
the next 2 weeks, plus sell out everything in the stock market...and you
don't see how this will bankrupt the financial system and bring about an
economic crash if everyone did as you suggest?
>Yep, you caught me! I really have something to gain by suggesting that
>people exercise their own free will and be their own free moral agents.
Yes, you DO seem to gleefully anticipate chaos and the breakdown of the
social order....
But you fail to point out that the government will utilize that as an
excuse to institute draconian measures to severely curtail all of our
civil rights...
>You, on the other hand, seem to have been the more 'altruistic' one by
>attacking my efforts and asking that we rely on the propaganda from
>governmental and financial institutions.
No, I'm suggesting people use their INTELLECT, and actually RESEARCH the
issue instead of running around in circles in a blind panic, as you
suggest...
>All of a sudden, us chicken
>littles are looking damn good by comparision, don't ya think? :-)
No, you continue to look as foolish as you always have...
>>Because what you predict, and what you encourage others to do, is
>>NOT rational....
>
>I have predicted nothing. I have suggested that people act in THEIR OWN
>best interest.
What you claim is acting in 'their own best interest' is indeed based on
your PREDICTION that the Y2K bug will bring about chaos...
>I don't give a damn about your precious institutions!
Personally, I don't either....having worked in the banking industry has
given me quite a jaded outlook, and I am definitely NOT a proponent of
the banking industry...
But I DO know the true status of their compliancy, and while there may be
glitches, I predict that they will be mostly transparent to the customer,
who will be able to go about his or her business as usual...
>Rationality is a matter of individual perspective (opinion) and, as far as
>I can tell, yours is qualitatively no better than mine.
Au contraire....my perspective is one of a software insider who has
actually worked on these systems, including doing Y2K retrofitting...
Yours on the otherhand is based on conjecture and hearsay...
June ;-)
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