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Many states still limit or prohibit commercial bank branching. In addition, the McFadden Act prevents banks from branching across state lines. It has been suggested that anti‐branching laws inhibit competition in the banking industry. This follows from the notion that bank markets are localized, and that anti‐branching laws prevent banks from penetrating local markets adjacent to their main offices. Two interesting hypotheses arise from this conjecture. First, do banks operating in unit‐banking states have a profit advantage over their counterparts in states that allow state‐wide branching? And second, is there any significant difference in profitability between banks in limited‐branching states and banks in state‐branching states? In other words, are there diminishing returns to branching deregulation? Research reported in this paper answers these questions.

Over the last few years data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been gaining increasing popularity as a performance assessment methodology. DEA has been successfully applied to bank branch performance evaluation. However, most DEA models which have been developed for bank branch performance assessment do not include service quality as an output. Service quality has been considered by many as the key to gaining competitive advantage and customer loyalty. Develops a DEA model that can be used to provide direction for improvement to branches which do not use their resources in the most efficient way to produce service quality. Focuses on internal customer service quality which is sometimes easier to measure. Presents results from an empirical study undertaken at a bank to demonstrate the applicability of the model.

The available evidence is partly consistent and partly inconsistent with a negative association of branching restrictions and the number of banking offices. In this paper, I present evidence that the failure to consistently find such a negative association of branching restrictions and banking offices is quite robust. I suggest that the endogeneity of the banking restrictions and regulators' unmodeled behavior are the basic source of the inconsistency. I conclude that there is no evidence that suggests substantial changes in the number of banking offices with the introduction of interstate branching.

Although it was predicted that bank branches would quickly become obsolete in a computerized society, the reality is that many full‐service branches are not closing but rather evolving to meet changing needs. The role of the branch manager is crucial, and is also changing. In particular, managers are expected to take a lead in marketing activities. A questionnaire study was carried out to examine managers’ changing roles, using two samples of branch managers, one from Canada and one from Spain. Managers were asked to rate 21 function variables on their importance in bank management and in facing new market trends. Differences were found between the two samples, as were similarities: both identified managerial ability, strategic autonomy of the branch and business development through increased marketing ability, as important building blocks for the future role of branches and their managers.

Describes history of local community and regional branch standards and branch library development in Cumberland County Public Library and Information Center, located in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Outlines services, staffing and square footage for full‐service regional and community branch libraries for an urban or suburban community serving a population of 20,000 to 35,000.

Many retail chains allow stock transfers to take place between branches. Considers the special case where one branch, out of stock of a particular line, faced with a customer wanting that specific product and unable to obtain it (in a sufficiently short period of time) through the normal distribution channels, obtains it from another branch in the chain. Argues that this process can be managed and controlled more effectively than is often the case at present, particularly if branch access is made available to central databases.

London Clearing Banks (LCBs) are currently endeavouring to improve their overall branch delivery system by adopting strategies which promote branches as marketing centres. This approach is necessary because of the substantial inherent disadvantages associated with the branch network. Branches are expensive and as distribution channels they are less than efficient. This inefficiency stems from the fact that customers need to be “induced” into them and also because branches are relatively inflexible and difficult to adapt to changing market conditions. As a consequence the strategies are identified and discussed, which are currently being implemented by banks in an endeavour simultaneously to improve both customer satisfaction and the efficiency of branch networks by making them more responsive to the needs of the market.

Discusses the experience of a large bank in a developing country when the bank introduced a counsellor role to improve the managerial capabilities of its growing body of relatively junior and inexperienced branch managers. Explains how this new counsellor position was designed with the specific objective of avoiding additional managerial levels which would otherwise be necessary for exercising close administrative control over branches run by ill‐equipped managers. Contends that an assessment of the bank’s experience yields useful insights for the development of managers in the context of comprehensive organizational transformation, involving changes to administrative culture in an existing hierarchical structure, particularly as they related to role appreciation and hunger for authority.

Service is a vital, multi‐dimensional ingredient of the relationship between customers and their bank, or, more especially, their branch. Further, word‐of‐mouth recommendation is a valuable source of new business and is often based upon the range of services available. It is therefore an important function of branch management to monitor on a daily basis the quality of service given to customers and, more globally, for Head Office management to have available an occasional measure of the levels of service available at individual branches.

A decade ago the threat posed to branch networks by emerging alternative distribution channels was largely perceived of in terms of the eventual effect they might have on the size and number of operational branches. Although still a valid concern, this consideration has proved to be of less significance and certainly of less academic interest than the innovative approaches of banks in seeking to preserve branch networks as important components of their distribution mix. Examines the different strategic responses of the banks to the problem of what to do with their branches and concludes that these responses all have one important characteristic in common, namely, that they are all market focused and profit based.