U.S.' BIGGEST PAYDAY EVER SWAMPS BANKS NATIONWIDE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, January 1, 1993                   TAG: 9301010035
SECTION: NATL/INTL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: HOLIDAY   
SOURCE: MARIANNE TAYLOR KNIGHT-RIDDER/TRIBUNE
DATELINE: CHICAGO                                LENGTH: Medium
U.S.' BIGGEST PAYDAY EVER SWAMPS BANKS NATIONWIDE
If the banks seemed a little busier than usual Thursday, it's not because all the new Publisher's Clearing House winners have suddenly surfaced to cash in their winnings.
It's simply because it's payday, in a big way.
More than $75 billion in salaries, year-end bonuses and Social Security payments were issued to more than 100 million recipients electronically or the old-fashioned way - by check - according to the National Automated Clearing House Association.
Dec. 31 thus became the largest payday in the history of the U.S. payments system, the association said.
"It was unbelievable," said Wallace Menefee, a loan officer at the downtown Roanoke branch of NationsBank.
"The tellers were swamped," Menefee said, while he was kept busy making loans. "We were really busy."
The office opened quite a few accounts, he reported, especially savings accounts for children.
Brenda McDaniel, spokeswoman for Dominion Bank, said that "we are very busy today," with lines at many teller windows. A spokeswoman for Crestar Bank said business at its Roanoke Valley branches was steady all day Thursday.
Payday fell this week on Thursday for companies, whether they pay employees on a monthly, bimonthly or weekly basis, because of the Friday New Year's holiday.
For recipients of Social Security, checks that normally arrive on the third day of the month were rescheduled to arrive Thursday, because Jan. 3 falls on a Sunday this month.
Banks are well aware of this confluence of events, but most seemed unconcerned about long lines or overworked tellers.
"It'll be similar to a busy payday for us," said Sharon D'Alessandro, vice president and manager of the personal banking center at Chicago's Harris Trust and Savings Bank.
"It's not like the old days," remembered Gary Kelley, vice president of Harris' Savers Center. "Most banks don't have nearly the in-bank traffic they used to now that we've got direct deposit and automated teller machines. People aren't having their passbooks posted the way they used to."
The Herndon, Va.-based National Automated Clearing House Association, which promotes the use of direct deposits, estimates that 30 percent of all U.S. private sector workers rarely wait in line at banks because they have their paychecks deposited automatically.
While that's an increase from the approximately 12 percent of employees who in 1989 relied on electronic communication between employer and bank for their pay, it's still a low proportion compared with some other nations.
In Japan, for instance, 95 percent of employees use a direct deposit arrangement, said Stephen Lewis, a spokesman for the trade group. In Germany, it's 75 percent.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB