The Clearing House Association and ABA submitted a joint comment letter responding to the second round of preliminary guidance issued by IRS (Notice 2011-34) with respect to implementation of FATCA. TCH acknowledges the difficulty that IRS and Treasury face in designing rules that strike the appropriate balance between the U.S. government’s interest in receiving information and the need for the new rules to be practical, logical and administratively manageable for both IRS and taxpayers. TCH believes, however, that certain provisions in Notice 2011-34 do not appropriately strike that balance. Specifically, TCH proposes that (i) the application of the passthru payment percentage initially apply only to dividend payments made by a FFI described in Code Section 1471(d)(5)(C) and to related custodial payments where the investment is held through a foreign custodian and that the percentage be a based on a standardized formula, (ii) the rules requiring heightened due diligence focus solely on account balance and clarify the account information that is subject to the heightened due diligence search for U.S. indicia, (iii) the requirements for the Chief Compliance Officer’s certification be clarified and (iv) the rules to qualify as a deemed compliant FFI be simplified.