In the unit banking system, the banking operations are carried through a single office and confined to a particular area. The banks maintain no branches. Unit banks, offer all their services from one office, through a small number of services may be offered from limited service facilities, such as drive in windows, automated teller machines, and retail store point of sale terminals that are linked to the bank’s computer system. These organizations are common in U.S. banking today. For example, in 1998 nearly 2,900 of the nation’s commercial banks, about one third, operated out of just one full service office, compared to about 5,900 banks that had two or more office in operation.
Definition