In line with the international assessment of world-wide trends, a shift in focus of compliance efforts by banks from renovation of systems to contingency planning is discernible, the report noted, adding the number of commercial banks reporting full compliance has increased from 18 to 19 during February. However, the report expressed concern over lack of readiness by core infrastructure providers especially in external dependencies relating to customer compliance.

As per the compliance position of commercialbanks till February end, 77 of the 104 banks who have to be fully ready by March 31 have not achieved full compliance yet. This includes 28 foreign, 25 private and 24 public sector banks. Interestingly, no public sector bank has achieved Y2K compliance by February end and only 12 out of 42 foreign banks and seven out of 35 private banks have complied with.

The report said banks continued to report time overruns in their compliance efforts on account of deficiencies in Y2K project management and logistics. Compliant versions of packages required to be customised and ported across a number of geographically dispersed branches, it added.

On complaints that some software vendors have reportedly defaulted in adhering to promised delivery schedules, the Y2K project cell of the department held a meeting with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) whose "total branch automation software (ISBS)" is being used by large number of banks for branch automation. The Bank of Rajasthan had complained to the Indian BankAssociation in February third week that TCS failed to keep its assurance on Y2K compliance in its branches in the National Capital. However, TCS said in a statement that BoR has confirmed that it has been supplied fully Y2K compliant ISBS package, which has been implemented successfully in 10 BoR branches.y