For immediate release

Statement of Roger W. Ferguson, Jr. Member, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System The Federal Reserve supports the creation of the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center in response to the President's directive to protect our nation's banking and financial services from the threat of physical and cyber attacks. The public and private sectors must work together to counter this threat. The center will foster private-public cooperation by permitting the timely analysis of and reliable exchange of information on computer attacks, threats and security vulnerabilities. The creation of the center couldn't be coming at a more opportune time. It builds on the close cooperation between financial service providers and their regulators that has characterized the preparation for the rollover to the Year 2000. By working on the century date change, we have a better understanding of the risks posed to mission-critical systems and the essential business processes that rely on these systems. We've learned to develop plans for maintaining business continuity and exchanging information if something goes wrong. This is exactly what we must do to protect the financial infrastructure so vital to our country's economic health from disruption by terrorists or criminals.

1999 Banking and consumer regulatory policy