FDIC Federal Register Citations

Executive Secretary, Attention: Comments/OES
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
550 17th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20429

Re: Proposed rule on Customer Identification Program

It is our understanding that financial institutions are already required to verify the identity of any person seeking to open an account. It is hoped that this proposed rule would not add additional unnecessary levels of compliance burden to this process.

We receive lists of known or suspected terrorists and terrorist organizations on a regular basis. They are lengthy and contain names that are often very similar. It is not practical to expect bank employees to remember them and comparing the names of new account applicants to these lists is very time consuming.

If regulators expect these new rules to be effective they have to be reasonably easy to follow. Software should be provided at no cost so that a name can be compared to all such lists simply by keying it in. Individual financial institutions should not have to bear the cost of developing these programs.

Yours truly,

Gary K. Friemann 
Pres.
Jennings State Bank
Spring Grove, MN  55974