ATM cards safe over New Years

JAKARTA (JP): Anxiety over the effects of the Y2K bug during the transitional period into the next millennium has prompted the banking sector, along with other industries reliant upon computers, to take action.

Aware of the possibilities that electrical and telecommunication systems may go down during the period, Visa International reassured on Monday its credit cardholders.

Visa International's country manager, Ellyana C. Fuad, said around 800,000 cardholders in Jakarta had been informed of the so-called millennium bug.

"We recommend our cardholders use automatic teller machines (ATM) cards while traveling or always record their credit card statement and financial records," she told a media conference.

She said each of Visa International's 15 affiliated banks had been declared capable of running the company's back-up plans.

The millennium bug, or Y2K, stems from the 1960s when computer units were larger than they are today. To save memory space, computer programmers used two digits instead of four to represent years.

Some systems could read 2000 as 1900 and freeze or delete data, disrupting everything from heart pacemakers, telephones to aircraft.

Ellyana said since late last year Visa International had intensified communications with its members, assuring them that it was safe to use the cards at banks, ATMs, restaurants and hotels everywhere during the period.

Mark Burbidge, the company's senior vice president, said Visa International couldn't guarantee that nothing would happen during the transitional period, as the Y2K bug is a complicated matter.

"But, we are prepared for all the possibilities," he said. (01)