As the midpoint of 1999 nears, the tussle between Y2K panic and calm preparedness intensifies. While the overall outcome remains in doubt, when it comes to banks and the security of accounts, the smart money’s on calm preparedness.

Federal and state finance regulators have been working with the banking industry for more than two years, finding and fixing Year 2000 computer glitches, testing systems and developing fail-safe backups of financial records. Everything’s according to plan and on schedule. The digital bugs are being squished.

It’s a good thing, too, because another species of vermin lurks – Y2K scam artists with a voracious appetite for other people’s money. The ploys are time-tested, with the added urgency of the impending New Year.

One common scheme has con artists, pretending to be bank representatives, calling customers and warning that they must move their money into a separate bank account to protect it from foul-ups. They ask customers for their account number to move holdings. Sure enough, the money is transferred to another account. Trouble is, it belongs to the con artists.

Or, these bogus bankers offer to send customers a sticker to make credit cards and ATM cards work in 2000. All they need is the account numbers. Or, they claim to be calling from the bank’s investment department with a special opportunity for preferred customers to put their savings into ultra-safe gold and silver. Make that non-existent or, at best, grossly overpriced gold and silver.

Add to that the survivalists’ recommendation that people withdraw all their cash from banks and stash it under the mattress. Robbers are aware of that recommendation and plan on making some large withdrawals of their own. In a state such as Maine, with a large elderly population that already keeps too much cash around the house, the result could be devastating, financially and emotionally.

During the last year, every financial institution in the country has been on a five-step timetable for Y2K readiness. As of March 31, the first four were completed, with 97 percent of institutions given satisfactory ratings. The last deadline is June 30, when all testing and implementation measures will be complete. Any bank not up to snuff by then can be placed under federal management.

And just in case a bug slips through the cracks, individual records of all accounts, from savings deposits to loans, will be backed up on Y2K-immune tape and also with hard-copy printouts. True belt-and-suspenders protection. And a safety pin, too: banks throughout the country, including Maine, will have staff working throughout the New Year’s holiday weekend running test transactions to iron out any kinks before the open of business Jan. 3.

Incidentally, two of the most common survivalist rumors – that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. won’t cover Y2K and that here will be a cash shortage –simply aren’t true. FDIC will cover deposits of up to $100,000 as always (although not those deposited under the mattress) and the Federal Reserve plans to increase the currency supply by $50 billion at the end of the year. That’s why they didn’t burn all those old $20 bills.

The Maine Bureau of Banking offers this advice: hang on to a couple of months’ of account statements and receipts; don’t give out account numbers to strangers; when in doubt, ask your local banker. Other than that, suggests Chief Bank Examiner Donald Groves, “you might want to stock up on a little extra food, water and cash – just like you would for a good winter storm.” Put that way, there’s nothing to panic about.