Eesti Pank (Bank of Estonia) has received and accepted year 2000 compliance statements of all commercial banks

All commercial banks operating in Estonia have submitted statements to Eesti Pank verifying that

  all information systems, critical from the point of view of business continuity have passed year 2000 tests and/or Y2K compatibility statements and assurances have been acquired from the vendors of the systems;
  all potential Y2K connected problems detected have been eliminated;
  for the Y2K event critical period a moratorium has been put on any changes that might potentially lower the level of year 2000 preparedness of the banks' systems;
  contingency plans to guarantee a level of preparedness sufficient for coping with potential extraordinary situations related to Y2K have been compiled, tested and officially approved for all the banks.

Apart from the central bank and the auditors, the Y2K preparedness of Estonian banks has also been verified by various rating agencies, larger creditors and internationally recognized expert groups.

A period of painstaking and thorough preparations to achieve Y2K compliance has preceded the submission of the Y2K readiness statements by the banks and the acceptance of the statements by the central bank. The process of preparing for the Year 2000 acquired a more specific and clearly defined framework from the beginning of 1998.

A specific organizational framework including dedicated project teams in all the banks had been set up for the Y2K preparations and a fixed schedule had been confirmed.

The preparations have included launching year 2000 projects by all the banks, compiling an inventory of all systems potentially affected by the year 2000 problems, testing the systems both by components and as a whole, introducing the necessary improvements and implementing updated systems where appropriate.

As a last phase of the year 2000 preparations by the banks, contingency plans have been compiled for potential extraordinary situations related to the year 2000 problem.

The banks have evaluated their internal and external risks, their impact on business continuity and mitigation possibilities. The banks have implemented various measures of risk reduction, checked the year 2000 compatibility/preparedness of the systems of their partners and service providers. Business continuity and recovery plans have been compiled by the banks along with detailed plans for extraordinary situations and the respective crisis teams have been convened. During the final phase of contingency planning, the detailed plans were explained to the staff and tested.

The contingency plans and the sets of roll-over procedures compiled by the banks include some special measures offering additional guarantees that no loss of information on customer accounts or other data takes place. In addition to the normally required regular backup copies, the banks have decided to make additional copies of critical data prior to the turn of the year.

Before and after the turn of the year, the banks have to forward regular status reports to Eesti Pank covering issues like status checks, the additional backup copies and the testing that takes place after the turn of the year.