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Year 2000 Computing Crisis: Federal Reserve Is Acting to Ensure Financial Institutions Are Fixing Systems, But Challenges Remain

AIMD-98-248 Published: Sep 17, 1998. Publicly Released: Sep 17, 1998.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO evaluated the Federal Reserve System's (FRS) efforts to oversee that the 1,618 financial institutions it supervises successfully address the year 2000 computer problem.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Federal Reserve System The Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System should direct the reserve banks to revise their supervisory review plans by October 1, 1998, to include: (1) a determination of how many technical and other examiners they need to adequately oversee the year 2000 efforts of member banks, data processing servicers, and software vendors; and (2) a strategy for obtaining these resources and maintaining their availability.
Closed – Implemented
Each Federal Reserve Bank (FRB) revisited its supervisory review plan to assess the number and adequacy of resources required to monitor testing and contingency planning efforts at supervised institutions and, based on this review, FRBs added staff to their year 2000 teams. In addition, FRS agreed to defer information technology examinations should additional resources be required for the year 2000 effort. Finally, several FRBs implemented specific retention and bonus programs necessary to either hire or retain key staff involved in the year 2000 program.

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Topics

Bank examinationSoftwareData integrityEmployee trainingFederal reserve banksInformation systemsInsured commercial banksStrategic information systems planningSystems compatibilitySystems conversionsY2K