STORY:
British Regulators May Close Firms

According to the BBC, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) has threatened to close 12 leading financial institutions if they don't come to terms with the millennium bug. The financial super-regulator says that 12 of the 160 leading UK financial firms had been identified as having not done enough to become 'year 2000 compliant'.

Michael Foot, managing director of financial supervision at the FSA, said: "In the last resort and where it is apparent there is no better way to protect depositors, investors, policy holders, or the integrity of markets, we will take action to restrict a firm's business or in extreme cases to remove its authorization altogether."

While declining to identify the group for legal reasons, he reportedly said they include household names among the UK's retail and investment banks, insurance companies and building societies

The FSA says 58% of the leading group were making satisfactory progress, 35% were behind but could catch up while the remainder were "not compliant".

The FSA has challenged the lagging companies to prove it wrong or quickly come up with a convincing solution. Foot did not give a deadline for any action to close firms but indicated it would be "towards the end of the year" if necessary.

Source: BBC

DATE: 3/22/99

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