Bank of China Group sets up emergency 'command posts'
The Bank of China Group has assigned more than 600 workers to 24 Y2K 'command centres' in a bid to ensure its computer systems negotiate the millennium transition.
The centres will operate in the group's 12 member banks and other subsidiaries. They will be staffed by about 30 people each.
The centres will report to a group command centre in the Bank of China building in Central. They will operate from 2pm on Friday until January 4.
The group's deputy chief executive for Hong Kong and Macau, Zhang Hong-yi, said Y2K compliance tests were conducted on June 12 and November 13 and the results were satisfactory.
Mr Zhang said the group's Y2K transition project started in 1996.
'We have used a comprehensive integrated approach to start the project, tested a lot of possible scenarios, potential fallouts and our contingency plans to fix them,' he said.
The group's computer centre deputy general manager Dong Yunhu said that over the Christmas long weekend, demand for bank notes from automatic teller machines remained about the same as previous long weekends.
He said he did not expect excessive demand for bank notes during the millennium transition period, but the group had prepared additional supply as a precaution.
The year 2000 computer problem arises because some older computers use only two digits to recognise year dates.
As a result, they may mistake 2000 for 1900, and may malfunction and break down.
The digits '00' are also often reserved for special testing purposes on older computers.
