DATE: Tuesday, September 9, 1997            TAG: 9709090214

SECTION: BUSINESS                PAGE: D1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY TOM SHEAN, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:   62 lines

VCU POLL GAUGES CUSTOMERS' VIEWS OF RECENT BANK MERGERS THOSE IN EASTERN VIRGINIA MORE UPBEAT ABOUT THE EFFECTS ON SERVICE THAN OTHERS.

Is the recent spate of bank mergers good news or bad news for customers? According to a new survey, expectations about the quality of service vary depending on where you live.

Bank customers in eastern Virginia appear more optimistic about the mergers' impact on banking services than individuals elsewhere in the state, according to a survey by Virginia Commonwealth University.

Thirty percent of bank customers polled in Eastern Virginia, which includes Hampton Roads, said they expect services to improve after the mergers of three large banks in the state are completed, the university's Center for Public Policy said.

Only 13 percent of those polled in the region said they thought the services they receive would worsen.

``I have a supposition that the (banking) industry in Virginia will remain very competitive,'' said Michael D. Pratt, a VCU economist who directed the survey with a university colleague.

Those institutions involved in mergers will try to retain their customers, while rival banks will try to lure away those customers concerned about a possible decline in services, said Pratt.

Among bank customers polled throughout Virginia, 21 percent said they expect services to deteriorate, while 20 percent thought there would be an improvement, according to the survey.

The survey included bank customers from five regions of the state: eastern Virginia, south central, west, northwest and the Washington, D.C., suburbs.

The expectations of worsening bank services were highest in the suburbs outside Washington, where 24 percent of those polled said they expected services to deteriorate in the wake of the pending mergers. Of the 273 people polled in that region, only 17 percent said they expected an improvement.

The survey, which included a randomly selected sample of 801 Virginia residents, was conducted by telephone between late July and mid-August. The survey had a sampling error of plus or minus 5.9 percentage points.

Individuals with higher incomes and more education were more likely to predict a decline in services after the bank mergers. Among those with family incomes of $50,000 or more, 27 percent said services would worsen. Only 16 percent of customers with family incomes of less than $20,000 offered the same response.

When conducting the survey, pollsters explained to participants that three large mergers involving Virginia banks had been announced since early June. Jefferson National Bank of Charlottesville and Richmond-based Central Fidelity National Bank have agreed to become part of Wachovia Corp. in Winston-Salem, N.C.

In addition, Richmond-based Signet Bank has accepted a merger offer from First Union Corp., in Charlotte.

The VCU survey, which was funded by the university's research budget, will be the basis for more detailed research on bank consolidation. ``In about a year, we'll come back with a second poll to see what people are saying then,'' Pratt said. ILLUSTRATION: SURVEY RESULTS

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[For a copy of the graphic, see microfilm for this date.] KEYWORDS: BANKS POLL SURVEY RESULTS

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