NR 98-50
May 8, 1998

                                  
   Acting Comptroller Julie L. Williams Urges Industry Leadership
                        on  Consumer Privacy 

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Acting Comptroller of the Currency Julie L.
Williams urged the banking industry to demonstrate leadership in the
treatment of confidential customer information and sensitivity to
personal privacy issues.  Otherwise, she said, "the industry risks a
customer backlash that could fuel reactions at the federal and state
levels that lead to restrictions on your ability to use precious
information resources."

Industry self-regulation has the potential to address many consumer
privacy concerns, she noted.

 "But, although I am hopeful, as a bank regulator, I am a paid
skeptic," she added. "And if self-regulatory initiatives are viewed
as weak and toothless, the stage will be set for a more active
government role."

Ms. Williams told lawyers attending a conference sponsored by the
Bankers Roundtable that the stakes for the industry are high.  For
example, one benefit of the recently announced megamergers, she said,
is that the resulting companies will be able to gather and distill
data on an expanded customer pool and use that data to better target
and serve individual customer needs.

"In the best case, we have a win-win situation: new business and new
synergies for financial institutions, more choice and more
convenience for consumers," she said. 

However, Ms. Williams noted that consumer surveys reveal growing
anxiety about the use -- and misuse -- of personal  information. 
Media reports, she said, detail stories about individuals whose lives
have been disrupted by fraudulent use of social security numbers,
bank and credit card account information, real estate recordation,
and even medical records.

"It is emphatically in the interests of the financial services
industry -- whose basic raw material, after all, is information -- to
take the lead in demonstrating that self-regulation can and will
work, and that public concerns about privacy can be addressed without
requiring externally-imposed government solutions to the problem."
                                  
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The OCC charters, regulates and examines approximately 2,600 national banks
and 66 federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States,
accounting for 58 percent of the nation's banking assets.  Its mission is to
ensure a safe, sound and competitive national banking system that supports
the citizens, communities and economy of the United States.