ABSTRACT
Have you ever thought about all the revolutionary changes we’ve seen, just in the past few decades, in how we handle money? Ironically, we hardly even handle the stuff anymore, at least physically. We now use credit cards to charge our purchases, ATM cards to get quick cash, Internet banking to pay our regular bills, and direct deposit to send our salary right into our banking accounts. In addition, we trade stocks electronically, manage our finances online, and have banks compete for our loan business. But the banks are also changing-i.e. they are merging feverishly. Branch offices have been consolidated to the point where a trip to our neighborhood bank often means interacting with automated machines instead of human tellers.
