News Center
Press Room
For Release:
Immediately
Contacts:
Stuart Z. Goldstein
DTCC
(212) 855-5470
Stephen Letzler
DTCC
(212) 855-5469
DTCC and Y2K: Background Briefing
DTCC and Y2K: Background Briefing
General Background
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), through its two subsidiaries, National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) and The Depository Trust Company (DTC) provides most of the key infrastructure for clearing and settling trades in the United States. These companies began making their extensive preparations for Y2K as early as 1994.
Y2K Weekend
- Has more than 1,100 DTC and NSCC employees on site during the Y2K transition weekend ( Dec. 31, 1999, to January 4, 2000) to handle customer issues and cope with any possible problems
- Is maintaining a major backup data center with 300 terminals that can be used by customers in the event their systems fail
- Hosting Securities Industry Association (SIA) central command center for entire securities industry
Y2K Preparations
- DTC and NSCC are central points of contact for virtually every exchange, brokerage firm and major bank in the United States engaged in securities transactions.
- DTC and NSCC began their Y2K preparation in 1994, and had system remediation work under way by 1996.
NSCC Y2K Efforts
- Tested 8,349 programs in 91 major applications.
- Reviewed, tested and remediated 13.2 million lines of code.
- Completed, in conjunction with the Securities Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), extensive testing and certification of more than 400 directly connected customer firms throughout the United States.
- Obtained certification from more than 350 additional firms (which connect through service bureaus) that they were able to process successfully in a Y2K environment.
- Coordinated testing with the SIA, SEC, the Fed, exchanges and other clearing corporations, as well as with customers.
- Ran initial beta tests in July 1998 with all exchanges and clearing corporations, and about 40 major customers.
- Participated in SIA industry-wide test in March/April 1999 involving brokerages, mutual funds, and banks.
- Implemented a freeze (moratorium) on system software changes in September and ran final checks on all applications.
DTC Y2K Efforts
- Tested more than 15,000 programs in 203 individual applications.
- Reviewed, tested and remediated about 28 million lines of code.
- Ran extensive testing with some 5,000 transfer agents, banks and others in 1998 and 1999.
- Worked closely with New York State Banking Commission, Fed Reserve Bank of New York, Fed Reserve, SIA and SEC, as well as all exchanges and other clearing corporations.
- Outfitted and tested its major backup data center.
- Successfully completed special testing for TradeSuiteä , money market instruments, securities lending, branch deposits and custody with participants in compliance.
- Implemented a freeze (moratorium) on system software changes in September and ran final checks on all applications in October.
About DTCC
The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), with operating facilities in multiple locations in the U.S. and overseas, is a holding company for six subsidiary businesses - a depository and five clearing corporations - as well as the co-owner with Thomson Financial of a global joint venture called Omgeo. Through its subsidiaries, DTCC provides clearance, settlement and information services for equities, corporate debt, municipal debt, government securities and mortgage-backed securities in the U.S., and emerging markets debt trades globally. It is also a leading clearinghouse for mutual funds and insurance products, linking funds and carriers with distribution networks. In addition, DTCC provides custody and asset servicing for more than two million securities from the U.S. and 84 other countries. For more information on DTCC, see www.dtcc.com.
For further information, please call:
Stuart Z. Goldstein - (212) 855-5470
Stephen Letzler - (212) 855-5469