Although Bermuda has come through the Y2K threat almost completely unscathed, today will be a crucial test to see if the Island's computers are functioning properly under normal working conditions.

Y2K experts are confident, however, that based on the successful tests so far, it will be business as usual today when companies re-open their doors.

But it will be several weeks before they draw a final sigh of relief and confidently declare that the Y2K threat is definitely over.

Glitches in computer systems may still emerge even though the rollover to 2000 has been completed successfully.

The final big day on the Y2K calendar will be February 29 when it will become apparent if software recognises that it is a leap year.

Barry Shailer, senior vice-president corporate administration at the Bank of Bermuda, who chairs the steering committee dealing with international business compliance with the Y2K bug, is confident things will go smoothly today.

He said yesterday: "Tomorrow is a real test as businesses come back to work.

But there is no reason to believe that anything other than normal service will be resumed because of all the testing that has been done and the wellness checks done on people's systems during the holiday.

"Although all the systems have been tested, we still have to see the systems in action with customer loads, but we still think the next two weeks will be quite telling.

"We're very pleased with the way things have gone in Bermuda and around the world generally. Some people are saying that maybe it was all hyped up and it wasn't such a big deal, but a lot of hard work went into the exercise and that's largely why we've seen the good results.

"February 29 is one of the Y2K days. We've been testing our systems and that will probably be the last major Y2K day to face. It's a relief and we keep our fingers crossed for the next couple of weeks.'' Mr. Shailer added that the Bank of Bermuda's offices in Bahrain, Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Singapore had traded successfully yesterday and New York was completing the day without any problems.

In addition, the international financial system SWIFT was operating as normal.

Mr. Shailer said he had heard of no Y2K problems in the international sector in Bermuda so far. All of Government's 28 critical systems functioned properly, although there were minor glitches, suspected to be Y2K related and anticipated in advance, in two areas. The receipting system at Port Royal Golf Course was malfunctioning, and software producing forms in the Education Department was faulty.

Cabinet Secretary Leo Mills said: "Everyone, not just in Bermuda but around the world, is relieved that the thing went as well as it did but we are not yet out of the woods completely.

"We still have to be reasonably watchful and careful over the next few weeks and days.'' He said someone could have planted a bug which would strike after the rollover when everyone believed the danger was over. That was highly unlikely, he added, but vigilance was still required.

Y2K bug news overseas: See Page 8 Barry Shailer Leo Mills