Tens of thousands of customers queued at banks yesterday to withdraw cash and update their passbooks, fearing a Y2K meltdown might wipe out their savings. People said they had faith in the banks' preparedness but were withdrawing their cash or obtaining proof of their account balance as a precaution. An engineer from Kowloon said he had withdrawn all his savings from HSBC, converted it into US dollars and placed it in a safe deposit box, fearing worldwide financial chaos. Bank of East Asia spokeswoman Maria Lui Man-ying said: 'We've found there's a 10 to 20 per cent increase in customers updating their passbooks today.' Secretary Cecilia Chui, queuing at a packed HSBC branch in Quarry Bay, said: 'I sneaked out from work just to get a bank statement as I'm worried that Y2K might mess up my account.' All banks in the territory say they are Y2K-compliant, but the supply of banknotes has been increased by $60 billion in the past three months to deal with the extra demand. Citibank spokeswoman Felice Ho Kam-ying said customers should keep their most recent statements for three months. Standard Chartered's Eva Law Weng-yee said many customers had been bringing their passbooks up-to-date. A spokesman for HSBC, Gareth Hewett, said: 'There are more people than usual doing their passbooks, but it's all pretty calm.' The bank said there was no chance of a computer glitch - which hit thousands of the bank's British cardholders on Wednesday - affecting customers in the SAR. Some 20,000 disciplined services officers will be on duty to cope with millennium crowds amounting to an estimated 1.2 million people tonight. Ninety-five per cent of the 14,000 police force will be on duty, with 3,000 in Hong Kong Island and 2,000 in Kowloon. Emergency lighting will be installed at key areas in Tsim Sha Tsui in case street lights fail.
