The UK’s FSA and Japan’s FSA (no relation) have both announced new guidelines on money laundering prevention systems will be issued in early 2000. In the case of the UK’s FSA, it remains entirely devoid of statutory authority to deal with money laundering matters save insofar as it can bring them within the “fitness and properness” test.

So, Y2K came and went with no significant casualty except at a party attended by one Flip-Sider where a psychotherapist said she was glad she was still there after all the worry about whether things would be alright as we went into the new millennium but it was not anything to do with computers but just that it was a momentous date. So, our intrepid Flip-Sider pointed out that there had been a Millennium four years ago by some calculations, by others that it would be next year and by still more three years after that, and enquired if she was intending to have the same feelings of paranoia for the entire eight year period, the psychotherapist scuttled off muttering “I’m not paranoid, at least I don’t think I’m paranoid, maybe I am paranoid, am I paranoid?”.

Oh, and a further casualty was the credibility of one of the world’s largest technology companies – BT (the company formerly known as British Telecom and now somewhat sadly using rhyming association to use the ET character in an award winning (therefore you know it’s cringe making) advertisements). Why a blow to them? Take a careful look at the following cookie generated by one of the huge number of BT websites.