Banking: Let 315 Do It

In the growing blizzard of paperwork piling up on U.S. business, the country's 13,500 commercial banks are slogging through the deepest drifts. Last year, the public scribbled 14 billion checks—almost double the number of a decade ago—and by 1975 they will be writing 29 billion annually. Since the end of World War II, the number of bank accounts has risen 33%, commercial loans 113%, mortgages 290%, and consumer installment credit 850%. The answer to the spreading prevalence of paper is mechanization, and the nation's big banks have set up their own computer systems. For smaller banks with deposits...