The South African Reserve Bank (SARB) and the Banking Council SA have established a joint Y2K Banking Response Centre to provide prompt and reliable information about the banking system over the year-end transition.The objectives are to;provide accurate information on the key transition milestones; deal with unforeseen events, establish their causes and monitor remedial action;disseminate information to regulators and to the public and analyse events;be the contact point for the media;provide key policymakers with information and links to other stakeholders. The establishment of this response centre is in accordance with international best practice and is part of prevailing contingency planning that has been established throughout the banking system.The response centre will be the focal point to gather and verify information from a variety of sources in a systematic way before dissemination. The centre, located in the SARB head office in Pretoria, will have the capacity to make policy decisions to resolve problems, should any occur. It is already open to deal with Y2K issues, and will operate on a 24-hour basis over the year-end transition period.The inaugural meeting to establish this centre was attended by representatives from the SARB, the Banking Council of SA, BANKSERV, the Financial Services Board (FSB) and the National Year 2000 Decision Support Centre (NY2KDSC). ​