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Fed says no sign of U.S. financial-system woes

WASHINGTON: The U.S. Federal Reserve said it found no early sign of problems in the financial system as Year 2000 began and said it was hopeful none will develop once normal business gets under way next week.

"We're ready to start our pre-scheduled health checks," a Fed spokesman said shortly after midnight, referring to reports it will be getting from the nation's financial institutions. "Given the experience of this day, we look forward to good results." A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury Department similarly said that there were no reports of any problems in any of the computer systems that it was monitoring. The Treasury is responsible for everything from issuing Social Security checks to monitoring trade across the nation's borders through its many agencies including the U.S. Customs Service and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Both the Fed and Treasury are operating round-the-clock communications centres through the weekend and into Monday, then running on reduced hours for the rest of next week as the financial system gets back into full swing on Monday.

About 100 Fed staffers were on duty at the Fed's centre, in a dining-room atop the U.S. central bank's Martin Building, while around 30 Treasury officers were working at its Emergency Information Co-ordination Centre.

The Fed asked large financial institutions active in key world markets and state member banks to start reporting to it once a day beginning last Monday on how things were going. That continued through Friday, to be followed by one report this weekend and then reports twice a day on Monday and Tuesday.-Reuters