Overall, the service providers and software vendors appear to be meeting the testing and implementation needs of their customers. While depository institution supervisors can and should provide appropriate guidance and meaningful incentives to the industry to prepare for the Year 2000, we cannot be responsible for ensuring the readiness of any particular organization. The board of directors and senior management of each institution are responsible for ensuring that their organization is able to provide uninterrupted services and operate in a safe and sound manner before, during and after the century date change. Again, our experience tells us that directors and management have indeed taken this responsibility seriously and that the financial industry will succeed in making a smooth transition to the new century. The likelihood of success for this transition, though, should not lull us into a false sense of security.
Continued diligence is required to ensure an orderly rollover to the century date change.
From a contingency perspective, much attention is being devoted to the matter of liquidity. For individuals that would be in the form of cash, and for financial institutions, adequate funding. Chairman Greenspan and others have indicated they do not believe the public needs to hold excess cash in anticipation of the century rollover. In fact, the Chairman has said that the most sensible response for individuals is to leave their cash where it is. While there may be isolated problems, we expect the usual payment methods of checks, debit cards and credit cards to operate.