Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation

I would like to address the cost of the Bank Secrecy Act. Currently, not only does the cost create a competitive disadvantage for smaller financial institutions (such as credit unions), little-if any-actual benefit occurs from the Bank Secrecy Act. Instead, I propose that the US Treasury bar-code the series number of the bills on the currency. Thus, high speed currency counters could read and record the series numbers. High speed currency counters would be installed at all of the federal reserve banks and the top 100 (in asset size) financial institutions could start reading and building a database of the movement of currency. This has already occurred in a small way at www.whereisgeorge.com (an internet site to track bills). NCUA, the FDIC, and the OCC should computer the COSTS of complying with the Bank Secrecy Act and disclose that COST in future admendments of the act.