Monday Open Line


It used to be that going to the bank was somewhat of a chore — with inconvenient hours and locations, and waiting in line for a teller. Now, many of us rarely see the inside of a bank anymore. We take care of our financial business at an ATM, by going online, or at our bank’s drive-in windows. The first such drive-up facility opened on this date in 1946 at the Exchange National Bank in Chicago, which offered its motoring customers 10 teller windows with sliding drawers. Now, drive-up tellers are available nationwide, and Americans have a choice of over 96,000 commercial banking locations to handle their money. ATMs notwithstanding, over 1.6 million employees work in commercial banks, which have over $15.5 trillion in assets. Profile America is in its19th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.