Washington, D.C., August 1, 2005 As the headlines in a recent Washington Post article screamed: "Area Gets All Out Bank Fight", our nation's capitol is witnessing an unprecedented expansion amongst national and local players on the retail banking scene. New branches are opening on every street corner, hours are being extended and local customers are being bombarded with ads promising accounts with no fees.

The top executive of a Washington D.C. area contractor that specializes in bank build-outs points out the allure of the local market. "It's been a while since my business school days but as far as identifying and zeroing in on a "target market", D.C. has got to be second to none for the banking industry," explains Barry Lake, President of Rollins-PCI Construction, "There's an exploding white collar population of lawyers, lobbyists and, of course, well paid government contractors and government workers that obviously need to keep their money somewhere." Banking industry officials obviously agree since Rollins-PCI Construction has had between 3 and 5 new branches under construction at any given time for over a year with no end in sight.

"Our niche is building-out storefront or 'in-line' bank branches on the ground floor of multi-storey office buildings, for example," explains Lake "and the recent trend toward urban living and moving back downtown has also been a boon for our business. Banks seem to be emphasizing convenience more than ever these days and convenience always starts with having your bank within a short walk of your home or office."

New player on the local banking scene, Commerce Bank out of New Jersey, whom just opened branches in Old Town Alexandria and Dupont Circle, are often cited as being trendsetters when it comes to convenience in banking with their branches being open until 7 p.m. and designed to look more like a Gap or Banana Republic store than a bank but even established names on the local banking scene such as Capital One, BB&T, Wachovia and Sun Trust have long since picked up on the trend toward convenience. "Sure, there seems to a lot of talk about them [Commerce] trying to make a big splash in this area," says Lake, "but, they've undoubtedly discovered that the mainstay banks in this market are not just going to rollover but aggressively defend their turf."

When this bank battle is over, more locations and more choices among banks is a big win for D.C.-area residents.