be cleared monthly or weekly to SBC. To keep funds associated with SAMs separate from its other funds, Bank of Scotland set up an independent company for each SAM. BoS acted as an agent for each BoS SAM and legal charges were in the name of the BoS SAM rather than BoS. Separate companies had to be set up for interest-bearing and zero-interest Scottish SAMs: BoS SAM 3 and BoS SAM 4. One of the English companies securitized the assets. Trials and tribulations The implementation team attempted to anticipate any problems. At their second meeting in early October, they were alerted by the IT people to the fact that Unisys, one of the bank's IT systems, could only process loans of up to 50 years, whereas the SAM was open-ended, until the sale of the property or the death of the owner. Nor could Unisys process an interest rate of 0%. There was also concern that with a separate company for each SAM, overnight processing might overrun, especially at the end of the month. The processing capacity was therefore upgraded, with a separate system for mortgages to avoid affecting the other systems. Property valuations were important because appreciation was calculated on the difference between the initial valuation and the final valuation of a property. Countrywide was appointed to administer the panel of valuers. Market introduction and reaction At the team meeting on 9 October 1996, it was decided to launch on 11 November, following an announcement in The Sunday Times on 4 November. There was also a press leak in a Sunday newspaper on 20 October. The product was launched before contracts with SBC Warburg had been finalised and before terms and conditions had been copy-written. By the launch date the bank was already receiving about 2,000 phone calls per day, with most of the callers interested in the 0% option, and 2,500 people had requested more information. Demand was much greater than expected: by the second week of December they had run out of brochures. BoS SAM 1 and BoS SAM 2 were sold in England, with the first moneys drawn on 31 December 1996. For the BoS SAM 1, 5.75% option, bonds worth £27.2m were issued; for the BoS SAM 2, 0% option, bonds worth £105.6m were issued. Unexpectedly, investors did not include pension funds. Borrowers had been expected to be in their seventies, but most of them