Deutsche Postbank AG has mastered the transition to the year 2000: the bank has successfully made the entire banking and in-house installations Y2K compliant. Customers were able to utilise the 1,700 ATMs throughout Germany on December 31/January 1, with all cash machines able to dispense up to DM 1000 without fail. But telephone banking, with its automated voice computer system, also proved Y2K compliant. The online banking once again went live on time. Starting Monday, the 14,000 nationwide Deutsche Post branches were also ready for banking business again.

On December 31/January 1, 150 Postbank and Postbank Data employees ensured a successful start to the year 2000. More than 90 specialists controlled all activities from Dortmund, with a further 60 employees conducting the necessary tests at the other computer centres throughout Germany. The main focus of activities was on the bank’s ATMs: in contrast to other banks and savings banks, Postbank ensured unrestricted operation to ATMs throughout the entire period. The Postbank employees tested all their own and external credit and ec cards. Even the cashless payment systems, such as electronic cash procedures, were tested to ensure flawless processing. Following a planned break between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., online banking activities were punctually restarted.

In parallel to this, 400 Postbank employees commenced activities during the night to ensure correct function of all business processes nationwide and to check trading systems. The function of the transaction at the Deutsche Post branches throughout Germany were also successfully tested. Testing will continue on New Year’s Day and over the next few days.

A particular challenge for Postbank

As a result of its nationwide presence via the Deutsche Post branches, the huge number of customers and the enormous volume of transactions, the Y2K compliancy presented Postbank with a particular challenge: for its 10 million customers, it manages four million current accounts and 20 million savings accounts. For the year 2000 this meant: the customer interfaces – a remarkable 20,000 counters at the 14,000 Deutsche Post branches and around 1,700 Postbank ATMs throughout Germany – required detailed testing. With a total daily volume of up to ten million transactions, the sheer magnitude of the exercise becomes apparent. As the market leader in online banking, the bank has placed particular emphasis on the 640,000 customers who manage their accounts via the Internet or T-Online.

For this reason, Postbank has – since 1996 – been working on the technical Y2K compliance with a large workforce and using considerable financial resources. More than 400 employees have been involved in this mammoth task, and Postbank has invested more than DM 100 million in ensuring Y2K compliance. This investment comes on top of the already substantial costs for converting the IT systems to the Euro in preparation for the year 2000.