NR 97-102
November 20, 1997


       OCC Announces Director of Special Studies Division

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- William Lang has been named director of
the OCC's Special Studies unit which was created early this
year to analyze public policy issues arising from emerging
technologies in the financial services industry.  In making
the announcement, James D. Kamihachi, senior deputy
comptroller for Economic and Policy Analysis, said Mr.
Lang's group will work closely with the Bank Technology
unit in developing supervisory policy in the bank
information systems area.

Mr. Lang joined the Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency in 1994 as a financial economist in the Economics
Department where he produced policy papers on the role of
the federal government in the issuance of  electronic
money.  Other issues he has worked on include financial
modernization, interstate branching, integration of
statistical analysis into fair lending examinations, and
bank lending to small businesses.

Prior to joining the OCC, Mr. Lang served as a professor of
economics at Rutgers University and as a visiting economist
at the Philadelphia Federal Reserve Bank.  He received his
Ph.D. from Yale University and his B.A. from the City
College of New York.  He is a native of Bronx, N.Y.
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The OCC charters, regulates and supervises more than 2,600 national banks and
66 federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the United States,
accounting for 56 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.