WASHINGTON – A number of Treasury officials have been participating in credit union events recently. Last week, Treasury Deputy Assistant Secretary for Critical Infrastructure Protection D. Scott Parsons addressed NAFCU's compliance seminar in Albuquerque, N.M regarding the USA PATRIOT Act. He first outlined the uniqueness of credit unions. "The seminar today on regulatory compliance is an example of how the credit union community works together to provide your members with good service and to ensure you are meeting the safe and sound regulatory requirements," Parsons said. He explained the purpose of Customer Identification Programs and how credit unions already had a jump on that due to their relationships with their members. However, credit unions still must collect the member's name, physical address, date of birth, and taxpayer identification number or foreign government issued document number, such as a passport number issued by a foreign government. Parsons also complimented credit unions on their information sharing with other agencies under Section 314 of the act. "Our commitment to you is to continue a dialog, to clearly explain what regulations mean, and to tailor the regulations to both the threat and to the specific sector within the financial services industry," he said in conclusion. "Let us know when we're confusing you, or when we can do better-because the better you understand our regulations, the more successful our efforts will be." Again, as a number of other Treasury officials have on several occasions, he noted the president's support of credit unions' tax exemption. In related news, Treasury Assistant Secretary for International Affairs Randal Quarles toured Guadalupe Credit Union, also located in New Mexico. Additionally, Community Development Financial Institutions Fund Director Art Garcia addressed NCUA's Access Across America Economic Empowerment Summit last week in Tampa.