Toronto Stock Exchange Announces Trading Systems are Y2k Ready

On February 8, coinciding with federally declared "National Year 2000 Preparedness Week", February 8-12, the Toronto Stock Exchange issued a statement on its readiness for the millennium date change. Adam Conyers, Vice President, Finance & Administration, said, "All of the TSE's mission critical systems, including trading and market information systems are ready for the year 2000. The Exchange has been successfully testing trading systems with member firms and third parties in our dedicated Y2K environment since September 1998. Three independent reviews by experts monitoring the TSE's Y2K initiative have confirmed the Exchange's progress. These are some of the reasons why, at the TSE, we are confident that January 4, 2000 will be just another trading day." The TSE had completed remediation and internal testing of the equities, derivatives and Canadian Dealing Network systems before the end of 1998 and have verified that all are Y2K compliant. In March and again in May 1999, the TSE will be a key participant in tests of the Canadian securities industry infrastructure under year 2000 conditions. Since the outset of the TSE's Y2K initiative, the Exchange's priorities have been to ensure that trading systems will function properly; market information and data vendor feeds will be reliable; internal, support and administrative systems will be fully functional; and that issuers listed on the Exchange are aware of requirements concerning disclosure about year 2000 issues. TSE By-law 685, adopted a year ago by the Board of Governors of the TSE, requires all issuers listed on the Exchange to make full disclosure of any material information related to year 2000 matters in annual reports to shareholders. Issuers are also obliged to disclose any material changes to their year 2000 information in continuous disclosure filings. The TSE publishes regular updates on its Y2K initiative on the Exchange's website, www.tse.com. For information on the securities industry-wide test program, check the Ontario Securities Commission website, www.osc.gov.on.ca. The fully automated Toronto Stock Exchange consistently ranks as one of the world's top exchanges and is Canada's premier market for equities and equities based derivatives, accounting for approximately 89% of all equity trading in Canada. In 1998, more than 26 billion shares traded, worth more than $490 billion - about $2 billion a day in share transactions. With a proud 147-year history at the heart of the Canadian economy, the TSE continues to provide Canadian and international investors with a well-regulated, fair and accessible marketplace.