Banks depend heavily on computers.
They use them to compile customer account information, process automated teller machine transactions and hook up with the Federal Reserve system. That may be why banks generally are further along than most companies in correcting the Year 2000 glitch, ranking just behind insurance and the investment services industries, experts say. Banks were forced to start dealing with the Year 2000 on a small scale in the 1970s, when issuing 30-year mortgages. The biggest say they'll be finished fixing the problem by the end of this year and will test their systems in 1999. The bank has 1,000 employees working on it full time.