SUBJECT: YEAR 2000 PARTICIPANT TESTING OF FILE FORMATS

NSCC is announcing that Equity Product input and output file formats are available for participant testing. The product and its respective input and output format layouts are as follows:

Input:

There is a new Year 2000 compliant format for OTC Locked-In and QSR Transactions SYSID 18651. This will be the Year 2000 file format used by participants and is the equivalent to the current six-digit date format SYSID 18600.

NSCC has established a Year 2000 Testing Control Group. The control group will provide a centralized communication and coordination contact point for all Year 2000 testing procedures and will be the primary contact for member firms requiring testing of input and output file formats. A separate phone number has been established for contacting the Year 2000 Testing Control Group and that number is (212) 412-8505. Any Year 2000 testing questions should be referred to the control group.

Each NSCC Product / Application Input file will have a defined testing period in accordance with NSCC’s Product roll-out schedule (see attached). NSCC will provide a three month testing period for Equity product’s input files. The testing period, for all Equity products will end on March 31, 1998. For those member firms unable to schedule format testing within the specified time frames, NSCC will make additional days available outside of the product’s initial testing time frame. Member firms are advised that only a limited number of days will be made available after the initial testing period. Participants are encouraged to test with NSCC as soon as that product group is made available.

NSCC is requesting that the participants use the prior day’s production dates when sending input test files to NSCC/SIAC. Firms who utilize the eight-digit date input file formats must also use the new eight-digit date Datatrak header. Firms will be contacted by the Network Operations Area staff for the technical information required to ensure a proper setup of a firm’s Year 2000 testing effort. NSCC has established a cutoff time for receiving a test input file at NSCC. The cutoff time will be 4:00 P.M. each evening. All Participant input test files received by 4:00 P.M. will be processed that night and results will be reported back to the participants the following morning. All Participant input test files received after 4:00 P.M. should contain the following day’s dates since these test files will be included with the following evening’s test files.

Year 2000 Output file format testing will consist of delivering a parallel production output file in the new format. NSCC will make production parallel output files available for distribution in expanded format on a daily basis at approximately the same time as current versions. All new Year 2000 file formats will have a separate and unique AutoRoute Product Number which participants may use to identify new output formats. Participants should capture the content of the new output files for their internal testing needs.