Lloyds encourages users to be millennium-ready

A dealer has been forced to shelve plans to set up a retail store after it was thwarted by Lloyds TSB group's decision to deny services to companies if they cannot prove millennium compliance.

Lloyds Bank has decided to deny its business customers services including CardNet, the Lloyds credit card authentication service, unless millennium compliance can be proved.

Tim Bartlett, small business manager for Lloyds Bank, said: 'If a company requires the CardNet facility, it will need to prove that its systems are millennium compliant and if selling hardware, that it is compliant.'

He added that it could also be an important factor for businesses applying for loans.

Aidan Manning, technical services manager at reseller Office Support, said: 'We decided to establish a Sage retail store but we needed a credit card set up. We were not told we needed to prove millennium compliance when we applied, so we went through all the hoops and got rejected. It was really frustrating.'

Lloyds started its internal compliancy project in 1995 and is due for completion in November. It has outlined its position on a business-to-business level.

A Lloyds statement confirmed: 'We will only maintain and instigate new relationships with the suppliers of products and services who can either demonstrate compliance or provide evidence of a comprehensive plan which will address the compliance issue.'

Bartlett added: 'Businesses should be thankful that we are showing an interest and dealing with the problem constructively. We are simply promoting good business sense.'

Gwynnth Flower, managing director of Action 2000, said: 'I'm delighted and fully endorse it - the banks are helping us do our job - 98 per cent of companies in the UK have lines of credit with banks. All that is happening is Lloyds is insisting that a company can prove it'll still be in business in 16 months.'

She added: 'This will force companies to get off their backside and do something about the problem.'