Row over Y2K weakspots in City

Action 2000 is facing resistance to its name and shame campaign for companies not millennium compliant. The Financial Services Authority is fighting publication of its own list of City firms still at risk. It feels the information is confidential and could alarm savers, investors and borrowers, according to yesterday’s Mail on Sunday. An FSA representative said: "For banks, insurance firms and building societies it is illegal for us to disclose this information." However, Don Cruickshank, head of Action 2000, believes the public is entitled to know which banks and financial institutions are not yet de-bugged. He told a conference last week that he would be pressing for the most serious offenders to be named by July, adding: "I see no commercial or public interest in not naming them." The FSA disagreed, saying it was not willing to name names or take regulatory action until the end of the year. "In November we go from saying nothing to saying everything. The problem with announcing that a company is having difficulties is that it could lead to panic," it said. The City is understood to have some of the most serious cases of companies not being millennium compliant. ®