NR 97-88
October 2, 1997


          OCC Announces New Director for Press Relations

Robert M. Garsson, Jr., will be the new director for press
relations at the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
(OCC), said Matthew Roberts, senior deputy comptroller for
public affairs.  Mr. Garsson will begin work at the OCC on
October 6.

Mr. Garsson joins the OCC from the Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC), where he has been director of corporate
communications since February 1996.  From 1982 through 1996, he
worked for the American Banker, where he progressed from
reporting on banking news in New York and Washington, DC to
serving as Washington bureau chief in 1994 and senior editor in
1995.  Mr. Garsson began his reporting career in 1976 with the
Asbury Park Press in Neptune, NJ.

Mr. Garsson earned a BA in history from the University of
Virginia in 1976 and an MA in political science from Rutgers
University in 1981.  From 1970 to 1972, he served in the U.S.
Army.

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The OCC charters, regulates and supervises approximately 2,800 national banks
and 66 federal branches and agencies of foreign banks in the U.S., accounting
for more than half 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.