BANKING: Just in Case

Manhattan’s prudent bankers last week started work on a plan to preserve their records in the event of an atom bomb attack. They set up two committees to study the possibility of protecting account ledgers and other records by microfilming them each day, storing the film safely outside the city. With duplicate records intact, banks could thus move their offices to outlying areas, keep in touch with each other through a new clearinghouse, which would also be located outside the city. No plans have yet been made to remove the billions of dollars in securities, notes and valuables which New York banks now have stored in their vaults. The vaults, sunk in solid Manhattan Island rock as deep as five stories down, are bombproof.