Switzerland faces “working day” Y2K test

The run-up to new year was overshadowed by fears that the millennium bug would wreak havoc across the world's computer systems. Swiss banks have spent years devising strategies to combat the Y2K problem, and so far they appear to have been successful.

Swiss financial markets faced a “working day” Y2K test on Monday, along with second-tier computer systems throughout industrial sectors .

Switzerland dodged the much-dreaded computer bug successfully on January 1, after computer clocks rolled over from 1999 to 2000. All major transport, telecommunications, power grid and financial command centres worked normally.

However, experts did not want to give the “all clear” just yet because some secondary systems and lower priority computer networks had been deactivated and were not switched on until Monday.

In Europe, stock exchanges, central banks and regulators reported all systems were ready to go when trading resumes later in the day across most of the continent.

The Paris bourse reported that early orders went through without any technical problems in early pre-open trading. The markets in Tokyo, Sydney and London are closed on Monday for holidays.

Asian financial markets were untouched by the millennium bug on Monday, and several stock markets reached record levels.

By the third day of 2000 there was still a striking absence of significant computer problems. Some began to wonder whether the Y2K fuss had been justified and Communist-run Cuba even suggested the millennium bug was a capitalist-hatched plot.

U.S. futures dealers executed the first major market trades of 2000 on Sunday and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange reported a trouble-free start.

From staff and wire reports.