jmcg (10/08/82)
I found this on the cover of "U.S. Financial Data", Federal Reserve Bank of
St. Louis, 1 October 1982. This is not representative of the publication's
usual cover matter, but is the first time I'd seen mention of some of these
services.
Jim McGinness
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Advances in computer and communications technology have expanded the range of
services that banks and other financial firms are able to offer the public.
Automated teller machines and automatic funds transfers are two recent
examples. Another is the money management account, which effectively allows
and investor to write checks against his investment in a money market fund as
well as against his stock portfolio. Many of these recent innovations in
financial services were not anticipated by Congress when it enacted
regulatory legislation, or by regulatory agencies when they established rules
governing financial institutions. As a result, certain laws and regulations
often must be amended before banks and bank holding companies can offer
services based on these new technologies.
The Federal Reserve Board recently amended its regulations to allow bank
holding companies to offer a wider range of data processing services.
Effective September 25, 1982, bank holding companies were permitted to begin
offering their outside customers data processing and data transmission
services, as well as data bases, hardware, software, documentation and
operating personnel. Access to these services may be provided by any
technologically feasible means. All data must be banking, financial, or
economic in nature. Under the new rules, bank holding companies may provide
access to economic data bases and a variety of software packages through
computer time-sharing arrangements. They also may offer desk-top automated
teller machines that enable consumers to pay bills and receive financial and
economic data at their homes. These and other services can be offered
through non-bank subsidiaries of the bank holding company, which can operate
nationwide.
--Donald M. Brown