Author: Robert West and Clifford Sims (1999)

Robert West and Clifford Sims, Baker & McKenzie

(From Issue 8,July 1999)

Introduction

The January 1999 issue of OPRA Bulletin Number 7 was prefaced by an open letter from John Hayes the Chairman of OPRA, on the subject of the Year 2000 compliance, popularly known as Y2K liability. Although the letter was largely directed towards trustees of occupational pension schemes, the fact that it was addressed to the pensions industry as a whole hints at the wider responsibility which third parties, such as scheme administrators, investment managers, custodians, bankers and accountants have towards scheme members and other beneficiaries to ensure that no-one suffers any loss as a result of the change of date on 1 January 2000. OPRA recently followed this up in a more dramatic way by sending out a computer mouse mat (bearing a Y2K warning) to all schemes.