ADVISORY/New Research by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Discusses Productivity Trends in Banking.

Business Editors

ADVISORY...for July 23 (Monday)

--(BUSINESS WIRE)

WHAT:  Productivity in banking

       FRBSF Economic Letter No. 2001-22 dated July 27, 2001

       In the latest Economic Letter, Fred Furlong, San Francisco
       Federal Reserve Bank Economist and Vice President of Financial
       and Regional Studies, discusses productivity trends in banking,
       focusing on the role of deregulation as well as on the impact
       of information technology on the industry's labor needs.

WHO:   Fred Furlong, Economist and Vice President of Financial
       and Regional Studies
       Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco

WHEN:  Now available on the Internet at:
       www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2001/el2001-22.html

WHY:   Productivity growth in banking has been strong for almost 20
       years, well in advance of the national economy's
       technology-driven productivity surge in the last half of the
       1990s. This timing suggests that the impetus for banking firms
       to push for greater productivity also came not only from
       advances in information technology, but also from other
       factors, namely, deregulation and increased competition, which
       led to the acceleration of the broad restructuring in banking.