Joint Year 2000 Council

Press release  | 
19 May 1998
19th May 1998

On the occasion of the Round Table on the Year 2000 held at the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) on 8th April 1998, the committees sponsoring the event agreed to establish a Joint Year 2000 Council. The Council is constituted by senior representatives of each committee, that is the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision (Basle Committee), the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS), the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS), and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO). Mr. Ernest Patrikis, First Vice President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, chairs the Council and its secretariat is provided by the BIS.

The Council intends to meet regularly and has agreed on a range of initiatives to ensure a high level of attention on the Year 2000 computer challenge within the global financial supervisory community, to share information on regulatory and supervisory strategies and approaches, to discuss possible contingency measures, and to serve as a point of contact with national and international private-sector initiatives.

At their meeting in London in early May, the G-7 finance ministers called on the Council and its sponsoring committees to monitor the Year 2000-related work in the financial industry worldwide and to take all possible steps to encourage readiness.

Joint Year 2000 Council
Fact Sheet

The mission of the Joint Year 2000 Council is:

  • to ensure a high level of attention on the Year 2000 computer challenge within the global financial supervisory community;
  • to share information on regulatory and supervisory strategies and approaches,
  • to discuss possible contingency measures; and
  • to serve as a point of contact with national and international private sector initiatives.

The Joint Year 2000 Council is sponsored jointly by:

  • the Basle Committee on Banking Supervision;
  • the Committee on Payment and Settlement Systems (CPSS);
  • the International Association of Insurance Supervisors (IAIS); and
  • the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO).

The Secretariat for the Joint Year 2000 Council is provided by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). Information from the Council will be made available on the BIS Web site (www.bis.org ).

The projects envisaged by the Joint Year 2000 Council include:

  • providing a forum for the disclosure of the status of global financial market preparations for the Year 2000;
  • encouraging all payment and settlement systems, clearing houses, exchanges and other parts of the global financial market infrastructure to make publicly available information on their preparatory efforts and testing programs;
  • meeting regularly with an external consultative committee composed of organisations or associations with an international perspective on Year 2000 preparations;
  • developing a global supervisory contact list for the Year 2000 challenge that includes a coordinating contact covering as many countries as possible;
  • supporting, co-sponsoring and providing assistance in planning further conferences and roundtables on the Year 2000 challenge in different regions of the world;
  • facilitating exchanges of information related to Year 2000 testing programs within the international financial community;
  • encouraging coordinated cross-border testing to the maximum extent possible;
  • developing a series of publicly available working papers on different aspects of the Year 2000 challenge;
  • facilitating the sharing of information on Year 2000 preparations by core infrastructure providers such as telecommunications, electric power and government utilities, as they relate to preparations by financial market participants;
  • sharing and developing ideas on contingency measures appropriate for individual firms and domestic markets;
  • serving as a point of contact for the coordination of international contingency efforts; and
  • encouraging the development of and the global sharing of plans for market conventions and dispute resolution procedures designed to mitigate the effect of Year 2000 transaction failures.

Members of the Joint Year 2000 Council

 

Chairman Mr. Ernest T. Patrikis
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Basle Committee Mr. Marcel Maes
Banking and Finance Commission, Belgium
  Mr. José Florencio Guzman
Instituciones Financieras de Chile
  Mr. Huw Evans
Bank of England
CPSS Mr. Carlo Tresoldi
Banca d'Italia
  Mr. Jammaz Al-Suhaimi
Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency
  Mr. Philip Tromp
South African Reserve Bank
IAIS Mr. Richard Smith
Insurance and Superannuation Commission, Australia
  Mr. Tarmo Pukkila
Ministry of Social Affairs and Health, Finland
  Mr. Bertrand Labilloy
Ministère de l'Economie et des Finances, France
IOSCO Mr. George Wittich
Federal Securities Supervisory Office, Germany
  Mr. Masayuki Tamagawa
Securities Bureau of the Ministry of Finance, Japan
  Dr. Munir-Majid
Malaysian Securities Commission
Ex officio Chairman of the Basle Committee
  Chairman of the CPSS
  Chairman of IAIS
  Chairman of IOSCO
Please address inquiries to:
Joint Year 2000 Council
Secretariat
Paul Van den Bergh
Bank for International Settlements
Centralbahnplatz 2
CH-4002 Basle
SWITZERLAND		  
 
 
 
Telephone Number: +41 61 280 8432
Fax Number: +41 61 280 9100
Email: paul.van-den-bergh@bis.org