Word: branches
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Every Main Street, U.S.A., needs a few vital businesses: a grocery store, a pharmacy, a barber shop and a bank. So when the Bank of America decided to close its branch in Piru, Calif, (pop. 1,284), the residents felt stranded. They would now be forced to drive eight miles on a winding road to Fillmore (pop. 9,602) to do their banking. "We didn't realize that people would get as excited as they did," said Thomas Beeler, the bank's area manager, after facing 100 shouting citizens at a Piru town meeting...
...days when banks were not permitted to offer a higher rate of interest than that set by the Federal Government, the financial institutions competed on the basis of customer convenience. Branches sprouted like hamburger stands as banks ventured into out-of-the-way places. Says Steven Rautenberg, a vice president with Chase Manhattan: "Since we couldn't offer market value on savings, we needed a branch on almost every corner to attract business." The total number of branches of banks in the U.S. increased from 21,880 in 1970 to 43,995 in 1981, the peak year...
...since 1980 looser federal rules have permitted banks to pay higher interest rates, and rising costs have forced bankers to watch expenses more carefully. Building a branch bank can cost more than $1 million, compared with about $350,000 for the automated-teller centers that banks have been installing at former branch locations and in shopping malls and airports. The machines also cost less to operate, about 250 per transaction vs. 500 with a human teller...
...deposited in the Bank of England as part of the January 1981 hostage-release agreement. Iran had said it would repudiate its debts to American banks in late 1979, after Jimmy Carter froze Iranian assets in the U.S. Bankers from both countries now meet almost daily at the London branch of Iran's Bank Melli to allocate the fund, and participants say the talks have become increasingly free of polemics. The biggest settlement to a commercial bank came in July, when Iran agreed to repay $136 million to New York City's Manufacturers Hanover Trust...
...their behalf. "He does a lot better with the masses than with the leadership," says Holman of the National Urban Coalition. Wherever he goes he attracts enthusiastic crowds, rousing them, inspiring them and drawing them into his quest. "I feel it is important that he run," says Richard Branch, 30, an Atlanta real estate salesman. "I don't think he can win, but that's not the issue...