NR 99-83
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                            
Contact:  Sam Eskenazi 
September 20, 1999                                                          
                          (202) 874-5770


          OCC Risk Measurement Conference Set for Oct. 14 - 15
                                    
WASHINGTON -- Comptroller of the Currency John D. Hawke, Jr. will
open the agency's first risk measurement conference, 
October 14-15 in Washington.

Citing the importance of recent advances in this discipline,
Comptroller Hawke said, "In the future, the quality of a bank's
risk measurement program may well determine whether it survives."

Treasury Secretary Lawrence H. Summers, Federal Reserve Board
Chairman Alan Greenspan, Citigroup Chairman and Co-CEO John Reed,
and Treasury Under Secretary for Domestic Finance Gary Gensler
are among the principal speakers scheduled to address the
conference, titled "Measuring Financial Risk in the 21st
Century."

Also speaking at the two-day conference will be other leading
experts from business, academia and government who will discuss
the state of risk measurement in banks; adjustments made in
response to recent financial events; risk measurement
technologies to be used by banks in the future; and what banks
can do to improve risk measurement.

The conference will be held at the Hyatt Regency Washington on
Capitol Hill and is limited to the first 500 to register. 
Registration is available by either fax or E-mail. 

All registration information, including a list of speakers and
the conference program,  is available at the OCC's web site:
www.occ.treas.gov.  

                                   # # #

The OCC charters, regulates and examines approximately 
2,400 national banks and 60 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.