Washington, DC (June 23, 2004) – Michael A. Dawson, who recently left the U.S. Treasury Department where he served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Critical Infrastructure Protection & Compliance Policy, has joined Promontory Financial Group, LLC, as Managing Director.

“Michael Dawson is the expert’s expert on recent changes in Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) and Know Your Customer (KYC) policies and procedures,” said Eugene A. Ludwig, founder and Managing Partner of Promontory. “He will be a fantastic resource to our clients, and a terrific addition to our team; we are delighted to have him on board.”

Mr. Dawson will lead Promontory’s Bank Secrecy Act and U.S.A. PATRIOT Act compliance activities. He is the fourth Managing Director brought on by Promontory in as many weeks to support the growing demand for its services by new and old clients alike, according to Promontory.

At Treasury, Mr. Dawson was the first person to serve as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the newly created office of Critical Infrastructure Protection & Compliance Policy. He spearheaded the Department’s efforts to enhance the resilience of the nation’s critical financial infrastructure, helped secure passage of the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003, and worked on other high-profile legislative and regulatory issues in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. Mr. Dawson directed Treasury’s U.S.A. PATRIOT Act Task Force, which was charged with improving the effectiveness of the Act.

In addition, Mr. Dawson developed policies and programs to help financial institutions manage operational risks, such as the risk of physical or cyber attacks from terrorists, hackers, and identity thieves, including:

• Leading Treasury's $2 million effort to upgrade the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center, which helped increase the number of institutions that receive physical and cyber threat reports from the FS-ISAC from 56 to more than 8,300;
  
• Developing a $1.25 million program to coordinate the federal, state, and local protective response to threats against the critical financial infrastructure; and
  
• Formulating a research and development agenda to improve the cyber security posture of the financial services sector.

Mr. Dawson graduated from Yale University with a J.D. in 1993, where he was a senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. He received a Masters as a Herschel Smith Fellow from Cambridge University in 1990 and graduated magna cum laude from Williams College in 1988.

Promontory Financial Group, headquartered in Washington, DC, is a premier regulatory and financial consulting firm for financial institutions, with offices in New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo. It was founded by Mr. Ludwig, former U.S. Comptroller of the Currency, and Dr. Alan Blinder, former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System

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