Dear Colleagues, Please find attached our circular submitted to the IAU last night. XTE J2012+381 R. I. Hynes and P. Roche, University of Sussex, report: "Images were taken on June 3.14 - 3.23 by N. Walton (Isaac Newton Group) using the 1.0-m Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope, La Palma, of USNO 1275.13846761 (IAUC 6931), the suggested optical counterpart to XTE J2012+381 (IAUC 6920). We estimate U = 19.4, B = 19.1, V = 17.9, R = 17.2, I = 16.6 (+/- 0.2 mag). V, R and I images also show a faint red companion star 1".2 away. We measure an offset in R.A. of -0.09s +/- 0.01, and in Decl. +0".5 +/- 0".1 relative to USNO 1275.13846761 placing this object at the centre of the radio error circle (IAUC 6924). We estimate V = 21.3, R = 20.1, I = 18.6 (+/- 0.3mag). These colours are consistent with a reddened soft X-ray transient as suggested by the estimate of A(V) = 7 deduced from ASCA spectral fitting (IAUC 6927). We therefore propose that this object is the true optical counterpart to XTE J2012+381."