While many are struggling to fix the year 2000 bug, the Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, Little Rock, has been hunting a different pest: the $1 billion bug.
Late last year, the $6.7 billion fund discovered a slight problem with its accounting system, which would not correctly register accounts of more than $1 billion.
The situation came to light when fixed-income manager Hyperion Capital Management, New York, acquired a repurchase agreement that put their portfolio at $1.66 billion.
The amount showed up on the system as $66 million, according to Angelo Coppola, deputy director.
No money was actually lost, but the error had to be reported to the state auditor's office nonetheless. The computer glitch since has been corrected, with the help of Deloitte & Touche, New York, the fund's administrative consultant, he said.
"It's grown so fast," Mr. Coppola said of the fund, which has been growing at a rate of $1 billion a year.
Mr. Cappola added that when he joined the fund three years ago, it had nine managers; it now has 21.
